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Archie, Fred and Eugene on the Main-crosstrees of the 

Stranger. 



































































FRANK NELSON SERIES. 


FRANK NELSON 

IN THE FORECASTLE; 


OR, THE 


SPORTSMAN’S CLUB AMONG THE WHALERS. 


By HARRY CASTLEMON, 

AUTHOR OF “THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB SERIES,” “GUNBOAT SERIES,” ** ROLLING 
STONE SERIES,” &G. 



PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY T. COATES & CO. 



? > > 



RARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

.JUN 10 1904 

Copyright Entry 

wjl i \\(\o 4^. 
.Hass f\ xxo. Na 




eH 


AMOUS CASTLEMON BOOKS. 













GUNBOAT SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 6 vols. 12mo. 

Frank the Young Naturalist. Frank on a Gunboat. 

Frank in the Woods. Frank before Vicksburg. 

Frank on the Lower Mississippi. Frank on the Prairie. 

ROCKY MOUNTAIN SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. 
Cloth. 

Frank among the Rancheros. Frank at Don Carlos’ Ranch. 
Frank in the Mountains. 

SPORTSMAN’S CLUB SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. 

Cloth. 

The Sportsman’s Club in the Saddle. 

The Sportsman’s Club Afloat. 

The Sportsman’s Club among the Trappers. 


By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo a 


FRANK NELSON SERIES. 

Cloth. 

Snowed Up. Frank in the Forecastle. The Boy Traders. 


BOY TRAPPER SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 
The Buried Treasure. The Boy Trapper. The Mail-Carrier. 

ROUGHING IT SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 
George in Camp. George at the Wheel. George at the Fort. 

ROD AND GUN SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 
Don Gordon’s Shooting Box. Rod and Gun Club. 

The. Young Wild Fowlers. 

GO-AHEAD SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 

Tom Newcombe. Go-Ahead. No Moss. 

FOREST AND STREAM SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 3 vols. 12mo. 
Cloth. 


Joe Wayring. 


Snagged and Sunk. 


Steel Horse. 


WAR SERIES. By Harry Castlemon. 5 vols. 12mo. Cloth. 

True to his Colors. Rodney the Partisan. 

Rodney the Overseer. Marcy the Blockade-Runner. 

Marcy the Refugee. 

Other Volumes in Preparation. 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 
R. W. CARROLL & CO., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 

Copyright, 1904, by Charles A. Fosdick 

W 














CONTENTS 


CHAPTER I. 

A Backwoodsman’s Ideas .Page 5 


CHAPTER II. 

“ Man Overboard”. «... 24 

CHAPTER III. 

A Sea Lawyer . 41 

CHAPTER IV. 

“ Shanghaied” 61 

CHAPTER V. 

The Trapper’s Adventure .82 

CHAPTER VI. 

A Scamp on his Dignity.99 

CHAPTER VII. 

Too late. 118 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Gentleman Black.141 

CHAPTER IX. 


“ There she Blows”.159 

(iii) 










IV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER X. 

Prank’s first Whale.. 


CHAPTER XI. 

Cutting In and Trying Out. 

. • 193 

CHAPTER XII. 

How Frank saw the Consul. 

. . 218 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Turned Adrift. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

Old Times Revived. 


CHAPTER XV. 

Frank on the Quarter-deck. 

. . 285 


CHAPTER XVI. 

Conclusion . . <* .310 





FRANK NELSON 

IN THE FORECASTLE; 

OR, THE 

SPORTSMAN’S CLUB AMONG THE WHALERS. 


CHAPTER I. 

A backwoodsman’s ideas. 

J DECLARE this is almost like coming into an¬ 
other world, isn’t it ?” 

“ Yes, and I, for one, am glad to get back. I 
like a good horse, and no one enjoys a few days’ 
shooting and fishing better than I do ; but when I 
get tired of the saddle and the woods, I like to see 
the blue water and feel the solid planks of a yacht’s 
deck under my feet once more. We had a good 
time though, in spite of all our adventures and mis¬ 
haps.” 


CD 





6 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ We certainly did. I am like Perk, who, after 
he had been down into the Cave of the Winds, under 
Niagara Falls, said he would do it again for no 
money, but seeing that he had been down, he would 
not sell his experience at any price. I couldn’t be 
hired to make that same trip to Fort Bolton again— 
being “ snowed up” was the worst part of it to me— 
but since it is all over and we are safely out of it, I 
am glad we went.” 

This was a portion of the conversation carried on 
by our friends Archie, Fred and Eugene, as they 
sat in the main-crosstrees of the Stranger, swinging 
their feet in the air and looking out over the ship¬ 
ping anchored off North Point Dock, in the harbor 
of San Francisco. They had only just arrived that 
day, their trip across the mountains being happily 
ended. They had discarded the half-savage, half- 
civilized costumes they had worn during their so¬ 
journ in the wilderness and substituted pea-jackets 
for their hunting-shirts, light shoes for their high- 
top boots, and natty tarpaulins for their slouch hats. 
They looked as though they had just come out of 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


7 


some lady’s band-box, and one and all declared that 
it was most refreshing to find themselves dressed up 
like white folks once more. 

The first thing these three uneasy youngsters did 
after they had donned their “ shore clothes,” and put 
the suits they had worn in the mountains carefully 
away in their trunks for safe-keeping, was to run all 
over the vessel, looking into every locker and corner, 
just as they had done when they first saw her on 
the stocks at New Orleans, and the next to mount to 
the crosstrees to survey the harbor. Here they had 
sat for half an hour, enjoying the prospect spread 
out before them, and talking over their recent adven¬ 
tures and exploits. The other members of the Club, 
Walter, Frank Nelson, George Le Dell and the rest, 
were seated on the quarter-deck with Uncle Dick, 
talking to Dick Lewis and old Bob Kelly. 

Dick and Bob were objects of great interest to 
the sailors who composed the Stranger’s crew. They 
stared at everything with wide-open eyes, and were 
as much out of place on the schooner’s deck as the 





8 THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB 

jolly tars would have been in the mountains from 
which the backwoodsmen had just arrived. 

The Club had had a varied and eventful expe¬ 
rience during the comparatively short time that they 
had been absent from the Stranger, and even now 
the hearts of some of them would beat a trifle faster 
whenever they thought of what they had passed 
through. Walter drew a long breath every time he 
recalled his experience in Potter’s rancho ; Fred 
and Eugene shivered and drew their collars up 
around their ears when they thought of the sight 
presented to their gaze on the day they set out from 
their camp under the cliffs, to show the Pike and his 
family the way to Fort Bolton, and imagined that 
they could see the air filled with driving snow, and 
could hear the roaring of the wind as it swept the 
prairie, just as they had seen it and heard it on that 
long-to-be-remembered afternoon. Archie grew ex¬ 
cited and elated whenever he thought of the way he 
had captured the wild horse, and then exasperated 
when he remembered how he had lost him before he 
had had a chance to try even one race with his 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


9 


cousin. Frank shrugged his shoulders when any of 
his companions called him “Chinny Billy,” as they 
often did, and thanked his lucky stars that he was 
well out of the predicament which the genuine 
Chinny Billy had so nearly got him into, when he 
denounced him as an impostor and spy in the pres¬ 
ence of all the members of Potter’s gang ; and even 
Uncle Dick Gaylord, hardened as he was by a long 
life of adventure, did not like to recall the feelings 
of anxiety and suspense that he had experienced on 
more than one occasion, during the journey to 
Bolton and back. The two trappers were probably 
the only ones in the party for whom the last few 
months had no especial interest. Their lives were 
made up of just such scenes and incidents, and they 
never thought of them again, unless something 
happened to bring them vividly to their recollec¬ 
tion. 

The last night that the friends passed at Fort 
Bolton was given up to enjoyment. The colonel 
and major entertained Uncle Dick at their quarters, 
and the younger officers took charge of the boys. 








10 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


After supper it was noticed that some of the officers 
and their guests distributed themselves in little 
groups about the room, that the members of each 
group carried on a very earnest conversation in a 
low tone of voice, and that various little keepsakes 
were passed from one to the other, which each 
promised to preserve in remembrance of the giver. 
The gifts that passed between Frank and Lieutenant 
Gaylord were the most valuable of any. These two 
young fellows had been fast friends and almost 
constant companions ever since the night on which 
the lieutenant recaptured Dick Lewis after his 
flight from the guard house, and arrested Frank for 
assisting him to make his escape. Frank had some¬ 
thing he knew the lieutenant wanted, and that was 
the splendid horse which Potter had given him. 
Frank could not take the animal around the world 
with him, and besides he was already the happy 
owner of a steed which was just as handsome and 
swift, and which held a much higher place in his 
affections. That was Roderick. It was Uncle 
Dick’s intention to travel on horseback until the 


AMONG THE WHALERS, 


11 


party reached a point from which they could con¬ 
tinue their journey by stage or railroad, and then 
sell off their stock—their wagon, which would have 
been an almost useless encumbrance to them, now 
that the roads were blocked with snow, having been 
exchanged for pack mules—Frank would then have 
no further use for his horse, so he offered him to the 
lieutenant, who was glad to accept him. 

The journey to San Francisco was made without 
the occurrence of any exciting or noteworthy inci¬ 
dents. Among them all they managed to shoot a 
few black-tails, and one grizzly bear, whose skin and 
claws were preserved by the old members of the 
Club as trophies. They found the snow fully as 
deep as they expected, the travelling difficult, and 
the weather extremely cold ; but their progress was 
steady, although slow, until they reached the rail¬ 
road, and then in a few hours they found themselves 
in an almost tropical climate. 

When they reached the railroad, Dick and Old 
Bob w 7 ould have taken leave of them, but the boys 
would not listen to it. They were determined that, 





12 THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 

if they could have their own way, the trappers 
should remain with them for a long time to come. 
They owed much to these two men, and as they 
could not repay them in any other way, they would 
take them around the world, introducing them to 
scenes and people of which they had never dreamed. 
Of course this idea originated with rattle-brained 
Eugene Gaylord, and Uncle Dick, who could not 
find it in his heart to refuse his nephews anything 
they asked for, consented to the arrangement, 
though not without a good deal of grumbling. 

“ They’ll only be in the way, Eugene,” said the 
old sailor. “ They just fit the mountains and the 
prairie—they were made for them; but how will 
they look on the deck of the Stranger? There 
isn’t room enough aboard our little craft for that 
giant, Louis.” 

“ 0, Uncle, there are two or three empty bunks 
in the forecastle, and they can sleep there as well 
as not,” replied Eugene. 

“ But they will be so uneasy that they’ll not 
enjoy themselves in the least,” continued Uncle 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


IB 


Dick. “ They will be frightened to death when 
they find themselves out of sight of land, and the 
men will be playing tricks on them all the while.” 

“But the men mustn’t play tricks on them. We 
won’t let them ; and besides it would be dangerous. 
As for being out of sight of land, that need not 
trouble them. They’ll not be in half as much dan¬ 
ger as they were while they were with Potter’s 
gang. Then think of the fun we’ll have, Uncle ! 
Didn’t you notice how they opened their eyes the 
other night when Bab was telling them of the 
elephants we expect to see in India ?” 

“Well, well! do as you please,” said the old 
sailor. “ If they are foolish enough to go, I shall 
have a fine time of it among you all; I can see 
that plainly.” And then he turned away to hunt 
up Frank Nelson, to whom he always went when 
he had anything on his mind. 

Eugene having gained his point went straight to 
Archie and Fred, who declared that it was the best 
thing they ever heard of. The matter was laid 
before the trappers with as little delay as possible, 


14 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


and the proposition almost took their breath away. 
They opened their mouths and eyes and looked 
wonderingly at each other, but said nothing. Archie 
thought that was enough for one day, and although 
his friends wanted an immediate answer, he suc¬ 
ceeded in inducing them to retire and leave the 
trappers to themselves. He thought it best to give 
them leisure to turn the matter over in their minds 
(it seemed to be more than they could grasp at 
once) and go to them for an answer at some future 
time. 

Hick and old Bob seemed to grow timid as they 
approached the confines of civilization, but they 
were coaxed on board the train, and when the party 
reached San Francisco, they' were taken off to the 
Stranger. The matter of the voyage around the 
world had been brought for up discussion a few times, 
but Hick had found his tongue at last, and declared 
that it was not to be thought of. The boys knew 
better than to press the subject, and hoped that 
time would accomplish what arguments could never 
do. A few hours on board the Stranger in the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


15 


harbor, where vessels were constantly coming and 
going, might increase their confidence, while it 
familiarized them in some slight degree with life on 
ship-hoard, and perhaps they could then be induced 
to change their minds. Archie had tried to persuade 
Dick to follow him and his companions to the cross- 
trees ; but the trapper, after glancing down at his 
colossal proportions, and then up at the ratlines, 
which looked no larger than so many threads, de¬ 
clared that the ropes wouldn’t bear his weight, and 
remained below. 

“Now, this feels natural!” exclaimed Feather¬ 
weight, swinging back and forth on his dizzy perch 
with such apparent recklessness that Dick Lewis, 
who now and then looked up at him, fairly shook in 
his moccasins; “ and I am ready for new adven¬ 
tures and new sights beyond the seas. Our fellows 
can say, what the books tell us-comparatively few 
American travellers can say, and that is, we have 
seen the most of the wonders of our own country. 
I never expect to see anything grander than the 




16 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Yo Semite Valley. I wonder how long it will be 
before Uncle Dick will hoist the signal for sailing?” 

“ Just as soon as the stores are aboard,” said 
Eugene. “We may get off to-morrow.” 

“ Will Dick and Bob go with us?” 

“No,” said Archie. “We might as well give 
that up. And since I have come to think of it, I 
don’t want them to go unless they are perfectly 
willing to do so.” 

“Nor I,” said Eugene. “If it frightens them so 
badly to travel on a railroad train, what would be 
their feelings when they found the schooner tossing 
about on such waves as we saw coming around the 
Horn? I shall urge them no more.” 

“ They have been talking to Frank about it,” 
continued Fred. “ They always go to him and 
believe every word he says—that is, almost every 
word.” 

“Ah! yes; I was going to put that in,” said 
Archie. “They don’t like to believe that the 
world is round. They don’t say so with their 
mouths, but they do with their eyes.” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


17 


“And they don’t know what to think about ele¬ 
phants as large as that house of Potter’s, and lions 
and tigers, and snakes twenty feet long,” said 
Fred. 

“And a whale bothers them,” chimed in Eugene; 
“ and Dick laughed the other day when I told him 
about a flying-fish.” 

“ What’s going on down there?” asked Archie, 
as the sound of voices in animated conversation 
came up from the deck. 

The boys looked below and saw that the group, 
which they had last seen scattered over the quarter¬ 
deck, were gathered about Dick Lewis, who appeared 
to be making them a speech. Now and then he 
illustrated his remarks by pointing to something he 
had placed at his feet; but the boys could not see 
what it was, for the Club were crowded about it and 
hid it from view. They were missing something, 
that was evident; but they did not intend to miss 
any more of it, and it w r as but the work of a few 
seconds to swing themselves out of the crosstrees 

on to the ratlines, and descend to the deck. They 

2 


18 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


ran up to the group, and found that the object over 
which the trapper was holding forth was simply a 
mess-pan filled with water. 

“ Them stories you’ve been a tellin’ seems won¬ 
derful to me an’ ole Bob, who never heard the like 
afore,” Dick was saying as the boys came up. 
“ We don’t conspute ’em, ’cause bein’ unedicated 
men, we never had no book lamin’, an’ don’t know 
nothing outside the mountains an’ the prairy. Now, 
you tell me that thar’s three times as much water 
on the ’arth as thar is ground ; that you’re goin’ to 
start from Fr’isco an’ sail clean around it in this 
yere little boat, an’ that if me an’ ole Bob’ll go 
with you, we won’t even know that we’re sailing 
round the world. Won’t we know when we come to 
the edge ?” 

“ There isn’t any edge to it,” said Frank. 

u Sho! Thar can’t help bein’ an edge if the 
world is round, can thar ? This yere,” said Dick, 
pointing to the pan of water, “ is the sea ; an’ this 
yere,” he continued, fumbling in the pockets of his 
hunting shirt, “ is the ’arth.” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


19 


As he spoke he drew out a piece of hard tack, 
which he had rudely shaped with his knife to repre¬ 
sent his idea of the rotundity of the earth. The 
corners were cut off, making the biscuit nearly 
round, and there was a piece clipped out of the side 
of it, in shape something like a bottle with a very 
short neck and wide body, to represent the Golden 
Gate and the harbor of San Francisco. This minia¬ 
ture world Dick placed in the middle of the pan of 
water, and then straightened up and looked tri¬ 
umphantly at his audience. Eugene glanced at it, 
choked back a laugh and then rushed off to find the 
steward, while the trapper went on with his illustra¬ 
tion. 

“Now, thar’s the ’arth,” said he, placing his 
finger on the biscuit, “ flat like a pan-cake, as any¬ 
body can see it is, that’s ever been out on the prairy, 
an’ round like you say it is. Here is the sea all 
around it, an’ here’s Fr’isco. Now, after you go 
out of the Golden Gate an’ start to sail round the 
'arth,” said Dick, moving his long finger through 
the water around the biscuit, “ can’t you see the 


20 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


edge all the way round ? I can understand that, 
which wasn’t so very plain to me a few days ago, 
but now comes something I can’t see into. You say 
the ’arth turns over onct every day, but that don’t 
by no means stand to reason, ’cause jest see what 
would happen,”—he went on, placing his finger 
under the biscuit and raising one edge of it out of 
the water. “ If it turned over, one side of it would 
keep gettin’ higher an’ higher all the time, an’ 
finally the houses, an’ trees, an’ mountains, an’ folks 
would get to slidin’ an’ slidin’, an’ when they come 
to the edge, they’d all slip off into the water; an’ 
when the ’arth turned cl’ar over”—here he flopped 
the biscuit up side down in the pan—“ whar would 
we all be ?” 

None of his auditors had attempted to interrupt 
the trapper, and the reason was because there was 
not one among them who could trust himself to 
speak, not even Uncle Dick. Believing from their 
silence that he had got the better of all of them, 
the trapper said he was more firmly convinced than 
he had ever been before, that all the learning in the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


21 


world was not to be found in books, and was about 
to throw the contents of his mess-pan over the side, 
when Eugene came elbowing his way into the group, 
carrying an apple in on hand and a small magnet in 
the other. 

“ Now, Dick,” said he, “let me talk a minute. 
You haven’t quite got the idea. In the first place, 
that piece of hard tack doesn’t represent the shape 
of the earth, but this apple does, pretty nearly. 
In the next place, the globe doesn’t revolve through 
water, for the water forms part of the earth and 
turns with it.” 

“Sho!” exclaimed the trapper. “It would all 
spill out.” 

“ Hold on a minute, and I’ll show you that it 
can’t spill out. The world revolves through the 
air. Don’t you fellows criticise now,” continued 
Eugene, turning to his companions. “ If, when I 
get through, you want to explain that the earth 
really revolves through space, and that the air goes 
with it, except such portions as are left behind and 


22 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


form the trade-winds, you are welcome to do it; but 
it is quite beyond me.” 

Eugene handed the magnet to Archie to hold 
until he was ready to use it, and with the point of 
his knife rudely traced upon the apple the shape of 
the continents and the principal oceans. This 
done, he went on with his explanation, which was 
simply a repetition of what every boy learns when 
he first begins the study of geography. He 
described the motions of the earth as well as he 
could, and used the magnet to illustrate the attrac¬ 
tion of gravitation. Dick listened attentively, and 
when Eugene finished, took the apple from his hand 
and looked at it with a great deal of interest. He 
turned it over several times, and appeared to be 
meditating upon something. 

“ They’re goin’ to sail round the ’arth this way,” 
said he, moving his finger slowly around the circum¬ 
ference of the apple, and talking more to himself 
than to the boys standing about, “an’ when they 
get around here”—he stopped and thought a 
moment, holding the end of his finger under the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


23 


apple—*• when they get around here, they’ll he— 
Human natur’!” he cried suddenly, as if frightened 
at the discovery he had made. “ When you get 
around here, on the under side of the ’arth, you’ll 
he walkin’ with your heads downwards, won’t you ? 
Bob can do as he likes, but I won’t go. Mebbe 
that little red hoss-shoe aint strong enough to hold 
the boat fast to the ’arth—don’t look as if it was— 
an’ some dark night she’ll get to failin’ an’ failin’— 
Whew ! I’m as near that place now as I want to be, 
an’ I’m off fur the mountains to-morrow, bright an’ 
’arly.” 

Dick turned away, fairly trembling with excite¬ 
ment, and the boys scattered as if some one had 
suddenly sent a charge of bird-shot among them. 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


24 


CHAPTER II. 


i( MAN OVERBOARD.” 


rjlHE trappers were badly frightened, there could 
he no doubt about that, and it was a spectacle 
the Club had never expected to witness. That 
these two men, who had time and again faced death 
in almost every shape in which he presents himself 
on shore, who had lived in the very midst of danger 
from their youth up, and who sought and delighted 
in perilous exploits, should be so nearly overcome 
with terror by hearing of things with which every 
schoolboy is familiar, was surprising ; and there was 
something so ludicrous in the manner in which they 
exhibited their alarm, that the boys could scarcely 
restrain their laughter until they could get out of 
sight. Old Bob glared wildly about him, seem¬ 
ingly on the point of jumping overboard and swim- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


25 


ming ashore, and Dick Lewis leaned against the 
rail, drawing his breath in quick gasps and looking 
altogether as if he did not yet fairly understand the 
startling discovery he had made. Uncle Dick Gay¬ 
lord took one glance at him and then went to the 
stern and looked over into the water, while the boys 
dived down into the cabin and threw themselves into 
chairs, or leaned up in corners, holding their hand¬ 
kerchiefs over their mouths—all except Archie, who 
never could control himself when he wanted to 
laugh. He ran into his state-room, shut the door 
and buried his head in the pillows. The funny 
part of it was, that Dick should suppose that those 
who attempted the reckless task of sailing around 
the world, should be obliged to take a magnet with 
them, in order to keep themselves and their vessel 
from falling off when they reached the “ under side 
of the earth.” 

At the end of five minutes Archie made an 
attempt to come out into the cabin, but he was still 
bubbling over with laughter, and the sight of him 
created a fresh explosion, and set Archie himself to 


26 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


going again at such a rate that he was obliged to 
go back. 'It is hard to tell how long it would have 
been before the boys could have controlled them¬ 
selves sufficiently to talk the matter over, had it not 
been that a commotion which suddenly arose on 
deck, drew their attention to other affairs. 

“Fore rigging, there,” exclaimed Uncle Dick. 
“ What do you see ?” 

“ A man overboard, sir,” replied the voice of the 
boatswain’s mate. “ He jumped off that whaler, 
sir.” 

“ And he’s swimming this way,.sir,” said another 
voice, “ and making signals of distress.” 

“Have the cutter called away, Mr. Baldwin,” 
said Uncle Dick, to his first mate, “ and send a 
crew out to pick him up.” 

The boys waited to hear no more. They crowded 
up the companion ladder with such haste that they 
ran some risk of sticking fast in the narrow passage¬ 
way, and reached the deck just as the crew of the 
cutter were tumbling into their boat which lay along 
side moored to a swinging boom, man-of-war fashion. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 27 

“ Where is Mr. Parker ?” said Uncle Dick, look¬ 
ing around for his second officer. 

“ 0, let me go in charge of the boat, Uncle,” 
exclaimed Eugene, snatching Fred’s hat from his 
head, for he had left his own in the cabin. 

“Away you go, then,” said the old sailor. 
“ Don’t let him sink before you reach him.” 

“ They’re sending out a boat from the whaler, 
sir,” said the foremast hand, who was at work in the 
forward rigging, and who had been the first to dis¬ 
cover the man in the water. 

“ Does he appear to be all right ?” 

“ 0, yes, sir. He swims like a duck, but he’s 
waving his hand to us.” 

“ Hold on a minute, Eugene.” 

Uncle Dick sprang upon the rail and supporting 
himself by the shrouds looked towards the man, and 
then toward the boat that was coming out to pick 
him up, while the boys, all except Eugene, who 
stood ready to take his place in the cutter at a mo¬ 
ment’s warning, swarmed up the rigging and looked 
on with no little interest. They saw at once that 


28 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


the man had no trouble in keeping afloat, for he 
swam over the waves as buoyantly as a cork. They 
saw, too, that he did not want to be overtaken by 
the whaler’s boat, if he could help it, for he looked 
back at her occasionally to see if she was gaining 
on him, and then redoubled his eflorts to reach the 
schooner. 

“ He is trying to desert,” said Uncle Dick, 
“ and I think we had better have nothing to do 
with him.” 

“ Quartermaster, pass up that spy-glass,” said 
Drank. 

The petty officer handed the instrument to 
Featherweight, who happened to be lowest in the 
shrouds, and he passed it to George Le Dell, who 
handed it up to Frank. The latter mounted to the 
crosstrees and levelled the glass at the swimmer. 
He held it to his eye for a few minutes, and then 
passing it back to George, said : 

“That man has either met with a severe accident, 
or been roughly handled. His face is bleeding.” 

“ Help ! help !” cried a faint voice. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


29 


“ Go and pick him up,” said Uncle Dick. 

“ Shove off,” commanded Eugene, before he was 
fairly seated in the stern-sheets of the cutter. 
“ Remember, men, that you are racing with a whale¬ 
boat, and that you don’t want to be beaten.” 

The cutter swung around with her bow toward 
the swimmer, and propelled by eight strong oars¬ 
men, who seemed to lift her fairly out of the water 
at every stroke, flew over the waves like a duck. 
A boat race was something in which Eugene took 
especial delight, but the one that came off that 
morning between the cutter and the whale-boat was 
not as exciting or as closely contested as he had 
hoped it would be. In fact it was no race at all; 
for when the officer, whoever he was, who had 
charge of the deck of the whaler, saw that the 
cutter was likely to reach the swimmer first, he 
hailed his boat, which turned around and went back. 

“ In bow,” commanded the coxswain of the 
cutter, who was sitting just behind Eugene. 

The two sailors who were seated in the bow raised 
their oars from the water, placed them on the 


30 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


thwarts between them, and then one stood up with 
the boat-hook in his hand, while the other threw 
himself flat on his face and extended his arm out 
over the water. 

“ Way enough ! Toss, and stand by,” said the 
coxswain. 

The other oars were all thrown up into the air at 
the same moment, laid upon the thwarts, and every 
man leaned over the side to be ready to seize the 
swimmer as the cutter moved past him. She 
retained steerage-way enough to carry her within a 
few feet of him, and then the coxswain, with one 
movement of the tiller, turned the bow aside, and 
the boat-hook was thrust out within reach of his 
hands. It was a matter of some difficulty to haul 
the rescued man aboard, for he was too nearly 
exhausted to help himself, and his clothing, being 
thoroughly saturated with water, was as heavy as 
so much lead. Besides, his forehead was badly cut 
and bruised, and no doubt he was suffering from the 
hurt. 

“ Did you fall overboard ?” asked Eugene, after 


Rescuing the Deserter. 


























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































AMONG THE WHALERS. 31 

the man had been pulled into the boat and had 
taken his seat in the bow. 

“No, sir; I jumped overboard on purpose.” 

“ You hit your head against something, didn’t 
you ?” 

“ The cap’n hit it for me, sir. It was a belaying 
pin that made that mark.” 

Eugene looked wonderingly at the coxswain, who 
nodded his head, as if to say that he didn’t doubt it 
at all. 

“ Why, the officers aboard our vessel don’t find it 
necessary to do such things,” said Eugene. 

“ But all vessels ain’t like the Stranger, sir, nor 
are all shipmasters like Cap’n Gaylord,” said the cox¬ 
swain. “ Do you s’pose there’s a sailorman aboard 
of us that would do what this chap has done—try 
to desert ? No, sir, you couldn’t kick ’em off if 
you wanted to. When we get back to Bellville 
we’ll have every man we brought aw T ay with us, 
unless some of ’em are in Davy’s locker.” 

The cutter was soon alongside the schooner, and 
the rescued man, by dint of hauling from above and 


32 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


pushing from below, was got upon the deck. He 
was a pitiable object when one came to look at him, 
and Uncle Dick’s first order was: “ Take him 
below, some of you, and give him something fit to 
put on. Be in a hurry about it.” 

The sailors were only too glad to obey. They 
led the dripping man into the forecastle, from which 
he emerged a few minutes later with a clean face, a 
suit of dry clothes, and a handkerchief bound about 
his forehead. In his appearance, which was very 
much improved, he would have compared favorably 
with any of the seamen on board the Stranger, and 
they were the very best that Uncle Dick could find 
in the port of New Orleans. He had evidently had 
plenty of time to tell at least a portion of his story, 
for the faces of the sailors were as black as so many 
thunder clouds. 

The rescued man at once made his way aft, accom¬ 
panied by the boatswain’s mate, who, presuming for 
this once upon his captain’s good-nature, and his 
own position as ranking petty officer on board the 
Stranger, took the liberty to go where he knew he 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


33 


had no right except he was in performance of his 
duties. The men saluted, removed their caps and 
waited for Uncle Dick to speak to them. 

“Well, Lucas, what do you want here?” asked 
the old sailor. 

“ I ax your pardon, cap’n, for coming on the 
quarter-deck at this time without an invite,” replied 
the boatswain’s mate, “ hut I just wanted to say to 
you, sir, that this man is black and blue from his 
head to his feet, so he is.” 

“ How did he get that way ?” asked Uncle Dick, 
while the boys ranged themselves behind him so that 
they could hear all that passed, “ and why is he 
trying to desert?” 

The mate stepped back and moved his hand 
toward the rescued man, as if to say that he would 
tell his own story, and the latter said: 

“ I don’t want to desert my ship, cap’n. I am 
an able seaman, know my duty and am ready to do 
it, if I can only have plenty to eat and am allowed 
a wink of sleep now and then. I am trying to get 
ashore for protection ag’in’ them tyrants aboard the 

3 


84 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Tycoon, and I hope you won’t send me back to 
them, sir.” 

“ Go on,” said Uncle Dick. “ What has hap¬ 
pened aboard that ship ?” 

“ She is nearly two years out of Nantucket, on a 
whaling course, sir,” said the man, “ and there 
isn’t a foremast hand aboard of her that she brought 
out with her. They’ve all deserted. She has to 
get a new crew at every port, and when she can’t 
get ’em honest, she kidnaps ’em, sir. I shipped 
aboard of her, along with a lot of others, at Callao. 
We’ve been out only four months, and two of the 
men jumped overboard rather than stand the hard 
treatment they received. On the first day out the 
officers began on us and never let up. They kept 
us at work till we were ready to drop, brought us 
out of bed at night and made us walk the deck, and 
if we fell asleep as we walked, they knocked us 
down with a handspike or belaying-pin. They 
starved us almost to death, and then, because my 
boat’s crew were too weak to save a whale we made 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


35 


fast to, they put us all in irons and pounded us with 
ropes’ ends till we were insensible.” 

This was only the introduction to the long story 
the man had to tell, and to which his auditors lis¬ 
tened with breathless interest. According to his 
account, the Tycoon w r as a horrible place, and the 
cruelties that were practised by the officers upon the 
defenceless seamen, were shocking. The man cer¬ 
tainly bore unmistakable evidence of brutal treat¬ 
ment, and added weight to his story by declaring 
that he was not only willing but anxious to meet his 
persecutors in a court of justice. Everybody who 
listened to him was indignant. 

“ The men on board that vessel have a remedy in 
their own hands—two of them, if they only knew 
it,” said Frank. “Why didn’t they demand an 
interview with the American consul ut the first port 
at which they touched?” 

“ It wouldn’t have done no good, sir,” said the 
sailor. “ The cap’n wouldn’t never let ’em see him, 
sir.” 

“ He couldn’t help himself,” returned Frank. 


36 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ The law compels him to allow his men to go 
ashore at every port at which the ship may touch 
to lay their complaints, if they have any, before 
our representative; or, if there is any good reason 
why the men cannot go ashore, the captain must 
bring the consul aboard to see them, if they demand 
it.” 

If there was anything in which Frank was par¬ 
ticularly well posted, it was the law governing the 
duties of consuls, as some of our representatives in 
foreign countries are called. The attorney with 
whom he had been studying in Lawrence, had polit¬ 
ical aspirations, and had at one time expected to be 
appointed consul for some port in the Mediterranean. 
If he had succeeded in his object Frank would have 
gone with him as assistant and clerk. He did not 
wish to accept any situation with whose duties and 
responsibilities he was not familiar, and in order to 
fit himself for it, he had obtained a copy of the 
Consular Regulations, which he had thoroughly 
mastered. It is a part of the consul’s duty to care 
for destitute, discharged and deserting seamen, to 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


87 


stand between foremast hands and tyrannical officers, 
to protect officers from and punish mutinous sailors, 
and Frank knew the law bearing upon every case 
that could possibly arise. 

“ The consul is obliged to listen to any and all 
complaints,” continued Frank. “ He measures 
them by the law bearing upon them, and he can 
discharge the crew on complaint of the officers, or 
he can discharge the officers themselves on a well- 
founded complaint from the crew.” 

The sailors opened their eyes and looked at one 
another. They had never dreamed that they had 
so many rights, or that there was a law enacted on 
purpose to protect them. 

Just then the whale-boat came in sight again, round¬ 
ing the stern of the Tycoon. She turned her bow 
toward the Stranger, and the quartermaster, after 
looking at her through his spy-glass, said there was 
a man in the stern-sheets dressed in gray. “ That’s 
the cap’n,” exclaimed the deserter, in great alarm. 
“You won’t let him take me back, sir?” he added, 
in a pleading voice. 


38 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“1 can’t prevent your lawful captain from taking 
you wherever he may find you,” answered Uncle 
Dick ; “but hold on, now, till I get through,” he 
added, as the man began to hack toward the rail 
as if he were about to take to the water again. “ I’ll 
give you a chance to save yourself. Call away the 
cutter, Mr. Baldwin, and send this man ashore.” 

“ Thank you, cap’n, thank you,” said the sailor 
gratefully, and with tears in his eyes. “ A pros¬ 
perous and pleasant voyage to you and your mates, 
sir. What shall I do when I get ashore, sir?” he 
continued, looking at Frank. 

“ Go to the nearest justice and take out a warrant 
against those officers for assault and battery,” was 
the reply. 

The boatswain’s mate and the rescued man looked 
as if they did not quite understand. “ You must 
know, sir,” said the latter, doubtfully, “that all 
this beating and pounding was done on the high 

fo6£LS« 

“ Well, what of it ? When one man, without any 
provocation, handles another as roughly as you 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


89 


have been handled, he is answerable to the law, no 
matter whether the offence was committed on the 
high seas or on the land.” 

“ Come now, off you go, my man,” said Uncle 
Dick. “ The cutter is ready, and you’ve no time 
to lose. Yes, go with him and take charge of the 
boat, Lucas,” he added, anticipating the request 
that the old boatswain’s mate was about to make. 

“ And whatever you do, don’t let those blubber- 
hunters catch you,” said Eugene, in a low voice. 
He wanted to say it aloud, so that the cutter’s crew 
could hear it; but knowing that Uncle Dick did 
not allow any interference with his men, he checked 
himself just in time. 

The cutter’s crew were all in their places, and 
there was a determined look on each man’s face 
which said as plainly as words that the “ blubber- 
hunters,” even if they succeeded in overhauling 
them—which was not at all unlikely, seeing that 
the whale-boat was built for speed, and was pulled 
by a crew who were kept in excellent training by 
almost daily practice at the oars—the deserter 


40 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


should never be taken from them. Uncle Dick 
seemed to read the thoughts that were passing 
through their minds, and as he looked at the sturdy 
fellows, who had thrown off their caps and rolled up 
their sleeves in preparation for a long, hard pull, he 
remarked to Frank that he would not care to be in 
that whale-boat if she succeeded in coming up with 
the cutter. 


AMO^G THE WHALERS. 


41 


CHAPTER III. 


A SEA LAWYER. 


fJpIIE cutter’s bow swung away from the schooner 
as soon as the boatswain’s mate and the 
rescued man were fairly seated, the oars dropped 
into the water, and then began a race that promised 
to be as exciting as even Eugene could have wished 
it. The boys once more ran up the rigging, so that 
they could watch both contestants. The whale-boat 
certainly had the better crew, and, although she was 
propelled by only five oars to the cutter’s eight, she 
seemed to move two feet to the other boat’s one. 
Especially was this the case when the man in gray, 
who was standing in the stern-sheets holding the 
steering-oar, became aware of what was going on. 
As soon as he saw the cutter moving away from the 
Stranger he comprehended the situation, and giving 


42 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


utterance to some heavy adjectives, which by the 
time they came to the hoys’ ears sounded a good 
deal like oaths, ordered his crew to “ Pick her up 
and run right along with her.” They responded 
promptly, and sent their boat through the water at 
such a rate that Uncle Dick became uneasy at the 
prospect of a collision between her crew and the 
cutter’s. 

“ I shouldn’t think there would be any danger,” 
said Frank. “ There are eleven men in our boat, 
counting the deserter, and only six in his.” 

“ But there is no officer in our boat,” said Uncle 
Dick, “and this man being a captain, will expect 
our crew to obey his orders. I am really afraid he 
will be disappointed.” 

Frank, remembering the savage and determined 
expression he had seen on the face of every one of 
the cutter’s crew, was quite sure he would be. 

In a few minutes the whale-boat came close 
aboard the schooner, and dashed by under her 
bows. Her captain was furious, his face showed 
that. He ran his eye over the men on the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


43 


Stranger’s deck, and picking out Uncle Dick at 
once as the commanding officer, said, as he nodded 
his head to him— 

“ Dine business you’re in, sir ! helping men to 
desert. If there is a law on shore I’ll see you 
again, my good fellow !” 

Uncle Dick simply smiled and touched his hat, 
and the whale-boat passed on. As she was going 
by, the sailors enacted a little pantomime of their 
own. They had clambered out on the bowsprit to 
see the race, and when the captain of the whaler 
was through threatening Uncle Dick, they glanced 
toward the quarter-deck, to make sure that none of 
their officers were observing them, and then leaned 
over and shook their fists at the angry man. One 
of them hugged his cap under his arm and beat it 
furiously with his clenched hand, nodding pleas¬ 
antly to the captain the while, as if to indicate that 
it would have afforded him infinite satisfaction if 
the captain’s head had been in the place of the cap. 
The boys, from their lofty perch in the main rig¬ 
ging, saw all that passed, and smiled at one another, 


44 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


but said nothing; for they knew that if the perform¬ 
ance came to the ears of Uncle Dick, who was a 
very strict disciplinarian, every one of the sailors 
who took part in it would he sent to the mast.* 
Although he might laugh over it afterward in the 
privacy of his cabin, he was not the one to pass 
lightly over an insult to a shipmaster when in per¬ 
formance of his duty, no matter how great the 
provocation. 

All this while the cutter’s crew had been exceed¬ 
ingly busy, and now loud calls were heard from the 
boys on the cross-trees for their field-glasses. They 
did not want to miss a single incident of the race. 
Frank, who up to this time had remained below with 
Uncle Dick, went into the cabin after the glasses, 
and mounting the rigging, joined the group on the 
cross-trees. “Who’s ahead?” he asked. 

* The “ mast” is to a sailor on board ship, what the 
“ library” is to a refractory boy on shore. It is there that 
culprits are sent to be reprimanded, if their offence be a 
slight one, or sentenced if they have done something de¬ 
serving of punishment. 



AMONG THE WHALERS. 


45 


“ 0, the cutter,” replied George Le Dell. “ There 
is more in that crew than I thought. They’ll land 
their man safe enough.” 

And George was right. The cutter reached the 
wharf while the whale-boat was yet twenty yards 
away, and no sooner did she swing broadside to it 
than the deserter was lifted in the strong arms of 
the coxswain and boatswain’s mate and fairly thrown 
ashore. He jumped to his feet and disappeared in 
less time than it takes to tell it. A few seconds 
later the whale-boat landed and the captain sprang 
out and started in pursuit, not, however, without 
saying a few words to the cutter’s crew, which he 
emphasized by shaking his fist at them. If any of 
the men replied, our young friends at the cross-trees 
saw nothing to indicate it. 

The sailors pulled back slowly, for their long, 
hard pull had wearied them, and when they reached 
the schooner and clambered over the side, the boys 
saw that their faces were flushed, and that some 
portions of their clothes looked as though they had 
been dipped in the bay. The boatswain’s mate 


46 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


went aft demurely enough to report the safe return 
of the boat, but when he made his way forward 
again, and glanced up at the boys, with whom he 
was an especial favorite, they saw that his jolly 
countenance was wreathed with smiles, and that his 
broad shoulders were shaking with suppressed mirth. 
He and the cutter’s crew were proud of the exploit 
they had performed. The fun and excitement 
being all over now, the boys seated themselves in a 
circle on the cross-trees to discuss the incidents 
that had just transpired. 

“Now just listen to me a moment, Frank, and 
I’ll ask you a question,” said Perk. “ Can that 
brutal fellow do anything to Uncle Dick for assist¬ 
ing his man to escape?” 

“ If you should see me assaulted by ruffians who 
were getting the better of me, and should rescue me 
from their clutches, could they do anything to you 
in law ?” asked Frank, in reply. 

“ Certainly not.” 

u The same law holds good on the sea. Some 
people have a very mistaken idea of things. They 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


47 


insist on a landsman’s right of self-defence, but 
deny the same to a sailor. Even sailors themselves 
think that because they follow the sea for a liveli¬ 
hood, they are debarred from exercising the very 
first law of our nature.” 

“ Hear ! hear !” cried Archie. 

“Silence in the court-room!” exclaimed Feather¬ 
weight, assuming a fierce frown. “ Hurrah for free 
trade and sailors’ rights, the motto on—on—some¬ 
body’s flag ! Proceed, brother Nelson. State the 
case to the jury.” 

Frank laughed as heartily as the rest for a few 
minutes, and continued : 

“ Sailors know that resistance to an officer, or 
even an attempt to spread dissatisfaction among the 
crew of a vessel, is called mutiny ; and they know, 
too, that men have been hanged in the American 
navy for that very offence.” 

“ See Cooper’s Naval History for an account of 
the mutiny on board the United States brig-of-war 
Somers, in 1842,” said Bab. 

“ That was the very circumstance I had in my 


48 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


mind,” returned Frank. “ Sailors know all this, as 1 
was saying, and consequently they are afraid to call 
their souls their own. They suffer in silence, unless 
they are driven to commit suicide during the voyage, 
and when they get ashore forget it all, or make a 
feeble attempt to punish their tyrants by process of 
law, but they soon give it up, for at the very outset 
they find an insurmountable obstacle in their way. 
Before they can convict they must prove three 
things—that the punishment they received was cruel 
and unusual; that it was inflicted without any just 
cause; and that the occasion of it was malice, hatred, 
or a desire for revenge on the part of the officer who 
punished them. Now, no living being can prove 
this last accusation against another, for in order to 
do it he must be able to read his fellow-men as he 
would an open book, and see what is passing in their 
minds; and even that would do him no good unless 
he possessed the power to make the judge and jury 
who try the case see the matter just as be does.” 

“ Suppose this deserter could prove his complaints 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


49 


against the master of that whaler,” said Walter; 
“ what would be the penalty ?” 

“ One thousand dollars fine and five years in the 
state prison.” 

“ And I hope he will get it all,” said Eugene. 

“Well, if it is so hard for a seaman to obtain 
satisfaction at law, what ought he to do when he is 
abused at sea ?” asked Bab. “ I understood you to 
say he had two remedies, and you have given only 
one.” 

“ Well, there is another,” said Frank. “ He and 
his companions ought to club together, take the ship 
out of the hands of her officers, confine them in the 
cabin, and make for the nearest port, if they are 
navigators enough to find their way there.” 

“ Yes,” exclaimed Archie, “ and swing for it the 
moment they reach the shore.” 

“ No, sir. The case has been tried in the courts 
more than once, and would be tried oftener if sailors 
only knew their rights. As far as any risk I might 
run is concerned, I would not be afraid to belong to 

such a crew and take part in just such a proceeding.” 

4 


50 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ Well, I don’t want you to get into any such 
scrape,” said Archie; “ I should never expect to see 
you again.” 

“ I have no desire to win notoriety as a mutineer, 
I assure you,” replied Frank, with a laugh. “ As 
his Honor remarked”—here he waved his hand 
towards Featherweight, who bowed gravely—“ I was 
only discoursing on sailors’ rights.” 

“ There,” said George, as the boatswain’s whistle 
rang through the schooner, followed by the order, 
given in a very hoarse voice, “ Away, you gigs, 
away !”—“ the captain is going ashore. Hadn't we 
better go down and keep Dick Lewis and Bob com¬ 
pany ? The old fellows will be lonely.” 

“ That means business,” said Eugene. “ Uncle 
Dick is going ashore to see about the stores. It 
will not be long now before we take leave of Fr’isco.” 

“ And what will be our next port ?” asked George. 

This was something that had not yet been decided, 
and if one might judge by what the boys said while 
they were descending to the deck, there was a pros¬ 
pect of a lively debate if the matter were left to 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


51 


them. Eugene wanted to go straight to Alaska. 
Bab, who had lately been reading “Reindeer, Dogs 
and Snow-shoes,” was in favor of that, provided they 
could afterward go across to some port in Siberia 
and stay there long enough to see a little of the wild 
life in w r hich he had been so much interested. Perk 
would agree to all that, in case they could stop on 
the way and give him a chance to try his hand at 
salmon-fishing in the tributaries of the Columbia 
river. Fred had seen quite enough of snow and ice, 
and thought he could have more sport in a warm 
country. He wanted to go to Japan. Walter said 
he was strongly in favor of that, for after they had 
seen all the sights in that country they would proba¬ 
bly go to India, and that was what he wanted. He 
was impatient to ride on an elephant and see the 
famous Indian jugglers and serpent-charmers. Every 
boy wanted to go somewhere, but the trouble w T as 
that no two of them wanted to go to the same place; 
and Frank wondered how the matter would be de¬ 
cided. How astonished he would have been to know 


52 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


that the man in gray, who had just gone by in the 
whale-boat, was destined to decide it for them ! 

The boys spent the rest of the day in company 
with the trappers. Nothing more was said on the 
subject which had for a long time been uppermost 
in their minds, for the tone in which Dick’s answer 
had been given satisfied them that it was final. 
The hoys were all sorry, for they had become 
greatly attached to these two good-natured, ignorant 
fellows. They had been of great service to them— 
beyond a doubt they had saved Walter’s life—and 
they could not but miss them when they were 
gone. The cousins especially would have been 
glad to postpone the parting moment had they 
possessed the power. It was not at all likely that 
they would ever see the mountains or the prairie 
again, and even if they did, the chances that they 
would find their old friends, the trappers, were not 
one in a thousand. Their meeting with them had 
been purely accidental this time, and it was not 
probable that such a combination of circumstances 
would ever occur again. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


53 


About supper-time Uncle Dick returned and 
reported that all arrangements bad been made. 
The schooner was to be hauled alongside the dock 
in the morning, and they would go out with the 
turn of the tide. Where were they going? He 
didn’t care. The world was before them, and when 
the boys had made up their minds what portion of 
it they wanted to see first, they could come to him 
with their decision. He wasn’t going to bother his 
head about it, for he had other matters to think of. 
Eight o’clock the next evening would see the 
Stranger under way, and if the boys had any busi¬ 
ness ashore they had better attend to it the first 
thing in the morning. 

Uncle Dick retired at an early hour, as he 
always did, and the boys had the quarter-deck all 
to themselves until eleven o’clock—or rather they 
had it in company with the second mate and the 
quartermaster on watch. A few “ primary meet¬ 
ings” had been held immediately after supper, but 
they amounted to nothing. Each boy knew upon 
whom he could rely to second any motion he might 


54 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


make, but be was not so certain of the number of 
votes he could raise in support of it. During the 
two hours’ conversation that took place after Uncle 
Dick went to bed, Fred Craven arose six times— 
that is, once every twenty minutes—and said 
gravely, 

“ I move you, Mr. President, that the captain of 
this schooner be requested to take her directly to 
some port in Japan.” 

“I second the motion,” said Frank, who was 
speaking for Walter. 

“ Gentlemen, you have heard the motion,” said 
Walter. “ Are you ready for the question ?” 

“ Mr. President,” said Eugene, “I move to 
amend by striking out Japan and substituting 
Alaska.” 

“ Second the motion,” said Bab. 

“ You have heard the amendment. Are you 
ready to take action upon it?” 

“ Now just listen to me a minute, Mr. President, 
and I’ll tell you what’s a fact,” said Perk. “ I 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


55 


move to amend by striking out Alaska and substi¬ 
tuting Astoria in Oregon.” 

“I second the motion,” said George, who, being 
a devoted disciple of old Izaac Walton, was as fond 
of fishing as he was of sailing. 

“Mr. President,” said Archie, “I move to 
amend-” 

“ The gentleman is out of order. An amendment 
to an amendment is proper, but not an amendment 
of an amendment to an amendment.” 

When affairs reached this pass a hearty roar of 
laughter would come up through the open cabin 
window's, showing that there was an interested and 
amused listener in the person of Uncle Dick, who 
having gone to bed, leaving his state-room door ajar, 
could hear all that was said. Then speeches were 
made, some long and others witty, and all showing 
the training the boys had received in their debating 
societies. Eugene was particularly long-winded. 
According to Featherweight “ he talked all manner 
of what,” and spouted away on subjects that had 
not the slightest connection with the question under 



56 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


discussion. He talked eloquently about the Ameri¬ 
can eagle, the war of 1812, and the stars and stripes, 
and dwelt long on the rights of sailors and other 
free-born citizens. He said afterward that if he 
couldn’t gain his point any other way, he would 
tire his audience out, and compel them to vote for 
his amendment just to get rid of him. But the 
boys listened patiently and without once interrupt¬ 
ing him, except by applause when he grew particu¬ 
larly eloquent, and the young orator finally tired 
himself out and took his seat in disgust. Every¬ 
thing was voted down; so they were no nearer a 
decision than they were before. There was one 
point, however, on which they were all agreed when 
the meeting broke up at eleven o’clock, and that 
was, that they had enjoyed themselves, and that 
their jaws and sides would be sure to ache for a 
week to come. 

During the afternoon the boys had held a consul¬ 
tation with the boatswain’s mate, who had promised 
to take the trappers under his especial charge during 
the night, and to report the first man who attempted 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


57 


to play any tricks upon them. After the meeting 
broke up the boys went forward with their friends 
to see them safely stowed away in the forecastle. 
The sailors were all up and waiting for them—not 
a man had yet turned in. The best bunks in the 
forecastle had been given up for their use, and the 
beds that were made up in them would have looked 
very inviting to almost anybody except our two back¬ 
woodsmen. Having been all their lives accustomed 
to sleeping on the hard ground, with nothing but a 
blanket or the spreading branches of some friendly 
tree for protection, they wanted plenty of air and 
elbow-room. They hesitated when they looked into 
the little forecastle, and drew back and shook their 
heads when invited to enter. Archie finally effected 
a compromise by bringing up a couple of blankets 
and spreading them on the deck near the windlass. 
This being perfectly satisfactory, the boys bade the 
trappers good-night, and went away, leaving them 
to the tender mercies of the sailors. 

There was not much sleeping done among those 
foremast hands that night. They did not play any 


58 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


tricks upon their guests—indeed there were not 
many among them who would have had the hardi¬ 
hood to attempt it, after taking a good look at the 
stalwart fellows—but they crammed them “ chock-a- 
block” with such wild stories of the sea that the 
trappers grew more alarmed than ever, and wondered 
greatly at the recklessness of the men who w T ould 
willingly encounter such dangers. They told about 
mermaids, sea-dragons and serpents; of Yander- 
decker’s ghostly ship, the Flying Dutchman, which 
was rushing -about the ocean with the speed of a 
railroad train, running down and sinking every craft 
that came in her way ; of monstrous cuttle-fish which 
would sometimes arise suddenly out of the depths, 
and twining their long arms about a ship, sink with 
it and all the crew to the bottom; and one of the 
men declared that he had actually met and been 
swallowed by the same whale that took Jonah in out 
of the wet, hundreds and thousands of years before, 
and to prove it, exhibited the tobacco-box which had 
dropped out of Jonah’s pocket when the whale threw 
him ashore. This is a staple forecastle yarn, and 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


59 


every one who has had an hour’s conversation with 
a sailor, has probably heard it; but it was new to 
the trappers, who listened with all their ears and 
with unmistakable signs of terror on their faces. 
The simple-hearted fellows believed every word, and 
when the conversation lagged for a moment, spoke 
of the magnet Eugene had shown them, and the use 
for which they supposed it was intended. 

This started the sailors on a new tack, and the 
stories that followed were more wonderful than those 
which had just been told. There was not a sailor 
on board the Stranger who had not seen some un¬ 
lucky vessel tumble off the under side of the earth, 
her magnet proving too weak to sustain her weight; 
and there were two or three who had belonged to the 
crews of those very vessels, and who had been saved 
by a miracle. 

The night was passed in this way, and it was 
daylight before the trappers lay down on their 
blankets to rest, but not to sleep. They could not 
sleep after hearing of such wonderful adventures and 


60 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


talking face to face with the men who had taken 
part in them. If they had not already made up 
their minds to lose no time in seeking safety among 
their native mountains, they would have done so 


now. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


61 


CHAPTER IY. 


“ SHANGHAIED.” 


PJ^HE morning broke bright and clear, and all 
hands were astir at an early hour. The first 
thing was to hoist the anchor and haul the schooner 
alongside the dock. This being done, breakfast was 
served, and the boys having put on their shore- 
clothes, started out to take a good look at the city 
which they might never see again, and to make pur- 
chases of various articles they needed. Fred and 
Eugene each wanted a rifle and a brace of revolvers, 
their own weapons having been stolen from them by 
the hunters who robbed the Pike. Some of the 
others needed a few articles of clothing, and Frank’s 
Maynard required some repairs. They set out to¬ 
gether, but before an hour had passed, were scat¬ 
tered all over the city. Fred, Archie and Eugene 


62 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


hired a carriage and went for a ride, taking old Bob 
with them, while Dick Lewis stuck close to Frank 
and Walter. Knowing that the time for parting 
was not far distant, he did not seem willing to allow 
them out of his sight. 

A few years before men like Dick were often met 
with in the streets of the city; but now a genuine 
trapper was not seen every day, and he created 
something of a sensation wherever he went. Almost 
every one he met stared at him and turned to look 
at him after he had passed; and Dick, finally be¬ 
coming nettled by the interest and curiosity his ap¬ 
pearance excited, begged the boys to take him back 
to the schooner and leave him there. He would 
stay on board until she was ready to sail, he said, 
and then he and Bob would bid a long farewell to 
civilization, and make the best of their way back to 
Fort Bolton. He hoped that neither of them would 
ever see a paved street or a brick house again. 

At six o’clock in the evening the boys, and the 
few sailors who had been allowed shore liberty, be¬ 
gan to retrace their steps toward the dock where 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


63 


the Stranger was lying. At seven they were all on 
board except two—Lucas, the boatswain’s mate, and 
Barton, the coxswain of the cutter. These men 
had not been seen since noon, and they were to have 
been back at three o’clock. Preparations were 
already being made for getting under way, and 
Uncle Dick began to grow impatient. “ I don’t 
see what keeps those fellows,” said he to Frank. 
“ I have always found them trustworthy, and I hope 
they will not fail me now.” 

“ I must go ashore again after my rifle, you know,” 
replied Frank—“ it was to be done at half-past 
seven—and I’ll go along the dock and keep an eye 
out for them.” 

“ All right. Hurry them up, if you see them, 
and be sure that you are in time yourself.” 

Frank went ashore accompanied by the trapper 
—Dick was not afraid of attracting so much atten¬ 
tion now that it was growing dark—and hurried 
away toward the gunsmith’s. He followed the 
wharves as long as they led him in the direction he 
wanted to go, looking everywhere for the missing 


64 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


sailors, but -without finding them. The actions of 
himself and his companion attracted the attention of 
two men, who were walking along the dock behind 
them. They watched them for some time, and then, 
after whispering together a few minutes, one of 
them came up and tapped Frank on the shoulder. 
“ Who are you looking for ?” said he. 

Frank turned and fastening his eyes on the man 
took a good survey of him before he answered. He 
was a flashily-dressed person, with a sneaking, hang¬ 
dog cast of countenance, and the grimy hand he 
placed upon Frank’s shoulder, and which the latter 
promptly shook off, was heavily loaded with bogus 
jewelry. 

“ Don’t be quite so familiar, if you please !” said 
Frank. 

“Beg pardon,” said the man, stepping back and 
straightening up his battered plug hat which he had 
thus far worn cocked over his left ear. “ I thought 
you belonged to the Stranger.” 

“ And what if I do ?” asked Frank. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


65 


“ I thought maybe you were looking for them two 
men.” 

“ What two men ?” 

“ Why. one of ’em is a short, thick-set fellow, and 
carries a silver whistle in the breast pocket of his 
shirt. The other is tall and slender, wears some 
kind of a badge on his arm—a petty officer’s badge 
I took it to he—and has light hair and whiskers.” 

The man gave an accurate description of the 
missing sailors of whom Frank was in search. No 
doubt they had got into trouble and found their way 
into some station-house; and this fellow was some 
little pettifogger, who hoped to make a few dollars 
by helping them out. 

“ I thought maybe you were looking for ’em,” 
continued the man, as he turned to go away; 
“but seeing you ain’t, I am sorry I pestered you.” 

“One moment, please,” said Frank. “Where 
are these men now?” 

“ They’re aboard my ship.” 

“ 0, you’re a sailor, are you ?” exclaimed Frank, 

again running his eye over the man, who looked 

5 


66 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


about as much like a sailor as Dick Lewis did. 
“ What is the name of your ship, and where is she ?” 

“ She’s the Sunrise, and she is at anchor out here 
in the bay.” 

“How came our men aboard of her?” 

“Well, you see, they’ve got some friends and 
acquaintances among my crew, and when we were 
lying alongside the dock they came aboard to see 
them. While they were skylarking about, one of 
them, the boatswain, fell into the hold and broke his 
leg. We hauled out into the bay just after that, 
and did it in such a hurry—you see there was an¬ 
other ship waiting to take our berth at the dock as 
soon as we were out of it—that we didn’t have time 
to put him ashore. We’ve had a doctor to see him, 
and maybe it would be a good plan to get an ambu¬ 
lance and take him back where he belongs.” 

“ I think so too,” said Frank, who became inter¬ 
ested at once; “that is, if he can bear removal. 
But whatever we do, must be done at once. Our 
vessel is all ready to sail.” 

“ I guess he can stand it to be moved. You 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


67 


might come aboard and see—you and your pardner 
here. I’ve got a boat close by.” 

Frank assenting to this proposition, he and Dick 
Lewis followed the man, who led the way along the 
wharf, and finally showed them a yawl manned by 
two oarsmen. They climbed down into it, their 
companion took his seat at the helm, and the boat 
was pushed off into the darkness. The man talked 
incessantly, answering all Frank’s questions, and 
going so fully into the particulars of the accident 
that had befallen the boatswain’s mate, and telling 
so straight and reasonable a story, that not a shadow 
of a doubt entered Frank’s mind. He remarked 
that the ship was a long way from the wharf, and 
that the two men who were pulling the oars looked 
more like “dock rats” than sailors; but still he 
scarcely bestowed a second thought upon these mat¬ 
ters, for his mind was fully occupied with the injured 
man to whose relief he was hastening. At last the hull 
and rigging of a ship loomed up through the dark¬ 
ness, and a hoarse voice hailed the yawl. 

“ Sunrise !” replied the man at the helm. 


68 THE sportsman’s club 

The answer was perfectly right and proper. It 
conveyed to them on board the ship the information 
that their captain was in the approaching boat; but 
it seemed to Frank that his presence brought very 
little show of respect from the officer in charge of 
the deck, for he ordered no lanterns to light him 
aboard. Indeed there were no lights to be seen on 
the deck, as Frank found when he clambered over 
the side, the only ones visible being those in the 
rigging, which were placed there to point out the 
position of the ship, so that passing vessels might 
not run into her. 

The captain, who was the first to board the ship, 
talked rapidly in a low tone to some one who hur¬ 
ried aft to meet him, and when Frank came up, 
he said aloud :— 

“ Take this gentleman into the forecastle and 
give him all the help he needs to remove that man. 
This one,” he added, pointing to Dick, “ can go 
with a couple of you to get a stretcher.” 

“ Ay ! ay ! sir,” replied a voice. “ Step right 
this way, sir.” 


AMONG- THE WHALERS. 


69 


Frank followed the speaker toward the forecastle, 
and when he came within sight of the ladder that 
led into it, was surprised to see that it was as dark 
as a dungeon below. Then for the first time the 
thought that things did not look just right began 
to creep through his mind. His companion de¬ 
scended the ladder, but Frank halted at the top. 
“Look here, my friend,” said he; “if you w T ant to 
get me below there you had better light up first.” 

“ Come on,” said the man, in a tone of command. 

“ Where’s that sailor with the broken leg ?” 
demanded Frank. 

“ Are you going to come on ?” asked the man. 

“Well, that depends-1 want to hear from that 

man of ours first. If you are down there, Lucas, 
sing out!” 

There was no response. In an instant it flashed 
upon Frank that he and Dick had been led into a 
trap. The man in the battered plug hat was no 
captain at all. Probably he was a shipping-agent. 
Having persuaded Frank and the trapper to accom¬ 
pany him on board the ship, he made a very plau- 


TO 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


sible excuse for separating them for a moment, so 
that they could not assist each other, and now they 
were to he overpowered and confined until the vessel 
was well out to sea, when they would he brought 
out and compelled to act with the crew. While 
Frank was thinking about it, his conductor, who had 
gone half way down the ladder, turned around and 
started to come back. Frank’s ears told him this 
and not his eyes, for they were of no use to him in 
that intense darkness. “Avast, there!” he cried, 
with emphasis. “ If you come a step nearer to me 
I’ll send you down that ladder quicker than you 
ever went down before. You have picked up the 
wrong men this time. Where is that scoundrel who 
called himself the master of this ship ?” 

“ Here I am,” replied that worthy, in tones very 
different from those he had thus far used in address¬ 
ing Frank. 

“ Well, if you are wise, you will undo this half- 
hour’s work with the least possible delay. Call away 
that boat and leave us a clear road to get to 



AMONG THE WHALERS. 


71 


Frank was interrupted by the sounds of a fierce 
struggle which just then arose from the quarter-deck. 
He heard the sound of stamping and scraping feet, 
muttered oaths and blows, and then Dick’s voice 
rang out clear above the tumult. “ Keep off, the 
hul on you,” said he, “ fur I’m a leetle wusser nor 
a hul parsel of wild-cats !” And then followed a 
sound such as might be made by somebody’s head 
coming in violent contact with the deck. 

“Stand your ground, Dick!” shouted Frank. 
“ I’ll be there in a minute !” 

With these words he sprang forward, intending to 
run to his friend’s assistance; but before he had 
made half a dozen steps his heels flew up and he 
was sent at full length on the deck, which he no 
sooner touched than two men, whom he had not yet 
seen, sprang up from behind the windlass and threw 
themselves across his shoulders. He had been en¬ 
tirely deceived as to the number of enemies with 
whom he had to deal. He had seen but four men 
on deck and there proved to be a dozen of them 
—more than enough to render resistance useless. 


72 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Almost before he realized the fact he was powerless, 
a pair of irons being slipped over his wrists and 
another about his ankles. When he was helped to 
his feet, he found that the struggle on the quarter¬ 
deck had ended in the same way. Dick Lewis was 
led up, and by the light of a lantern which one of 
the crew drew from under a tarpaulin, Frank saw 
that he was ironed like himself. 

The man who carried the lantern held it up so 
that its rays fell full on the prisoners, and gave them 
a good looking over, bestowing his attentions prin¬ 
cipally upon their arms and shoulders, as if trying 
to judge of the amount of muscle they might contain. 
“They’ll do,” said he, at last, “and now we’re' all 
ready to be off. Can you pull an oar ?” he added, 
flashing his lantern in Frank’s face. 

“I can,” was the reply. 

“ I can ! Is that the way you talk to me ? I am 
mate of this vessel and there’s a handle to my 
name.” 

“ I did not know that you were an officer,” replied 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


73 


Frank, “ and neither am I aware that I am under 
any obligations to put a handle to your name.” 

“ Well, you’ll find it out pretty sudden. It shall 
be my first hard work to teach you manners, my 
fine gentleman. Take ’em below.” 

The mate handed the lantern to one of the crew, 
who moved toward the forecastle, followed by the 
prisoners, who never uttered a word of complaint or 
remonstrance. Frank knew it would do no good, 
and Dick was so bewildered that he could not have 
spoken if he had tried. He kept as close to his 
young companion as he could. He seemed to think 
that Frank, powerless as he was, could in some way 
protect him. They followed their conductor into the 
forecastle, and the latter, after hanging the lantern 
to one of the carlens, went on deck again, closing 
the hatch after him. 

Frank and the trapper looked about them before 
they spoke. The very first objects their eyes rested 
on were the two missing seamen, the coxswain and 
the boatswain’s mate, who lay side by side in one 
of the bunks, snoring at the rate of ten knots an 


74 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


hour. They were there, sure enough—the bogus 
captain told the truth on that point—and Frank 
was glad to see that they were all right, or would 
be as soon as the effects of the drug they had swal¬ 
lowed had been slept off. There were three other 
men in the forecastle, and they were in irons like 
themselves. They lay in their bunks and looked 
sullenly at the new-comers. “ What’s the matter 
with you?” asked Frank. “What have you been 
doing to get yourselves in this fix?” 

“Trying to desert,” growled one of the sailors, 
in reply. “ What’s the matter with you V' 

“ Shanghaied,” answered Frank. “ What ship is 
this, and where is she bound?” 

“ She’s the Tycoon, and I expect she’s off for the 
Japan station.” 

Frank’s heart seemed to stop beating. His situ¬ 
ation was even worse than he had supposed. He 
recalled the story of the man he had seen desert 
that same ship on that very day, and shuddered 
when he thought of what might be in store for him. 

“ What did you say was the matter with us, Master 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


75 


Frank ?” asked the trapper, leaning against a bunk 
by his friend’s side and speaking in a low voice. 

“I say we have been shanghaied—that is, kid¬ 
napped,” replied Frank. 

“But what fur?” said Dick, who did not under¬ 
stand the matter at all. “ We hain’t been a doin’ of 
nothing.” 

“ I know that; but you see—in the first place, 
Dick, there’s no use in denying that we are in 
serious trouble. You might as well know it first as 
last and make up your mind to stand it, for there is 
no way of escape. This is the same ship that that 
man we picked up to-day deserted from, and that 
red-faced man in gray whom we saw in the whale¬ 
boat is the captain of her. He and his officers treat 
their men so harshly that they run away every 
chance they get. The captain must have men to, 
handle his vessel, and as he can’t get them in the 
regular way, he kidnaps them.” 

“ But what do I know ’bout a ship ?” exclaimed 
Dick. 

“ Nothing whatever; but that is no matter. You 


76 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


have good strong arms, and it will not take long to 
break you in.” 

“ Whar—whar-” 

The trapper could not ask the question he was 
most anxious to have answered. It seemed to stick 
in his throat. 

“ I know what you mean,” said Frank. u This 
man says we are bound for Japan, and that is nearly 
three thousand miles from here.” 

Dick was frightened almost out of his senses. 
His face grew as pale as death, great drops of per¬ 
spiration stood on his forehead, and he tugged and 
pulled at his irons with the strength of desperation. 
But they had been put on him to stay, and all his 
efforts to free himself were unavailing. Frank knew 
what he stood in fear of, and he knew, too, that any¬ 
thing he could say would not set the poor fellow’s 
mind at rest. The wrong ideas he had formed of 
things and the ridiculous stories he had heard in the 
forecastle of the Stranger, had made an impression 
on him so deep and lasting that even Frank, in whom 
the trapper had every confidence, could not remove 



AMONG THE WHALERS. 


77 


it. The real dangers he was likely to encounter 
would be but small things comparatively ; but the 
imaginary evils which he would look for every day, 
would cause him much suffering. Frank thought 
more of his friend than he did of himself. How 
would Dick behave when he found himself dancing 
over the waves of the Pacific in a small boat in pur¬ 
suit of a whale ? What would he think if he saw one 
of those monsters of the deep—as Lucas, the boat¬ 
swain’s mate, said he had often seen them—come up 
on a breach, shoot up forty or fifty feet into the air, 
and then fall down into the water with a noise like 
the roar of Niagara ? No doubt he would refuse duty. 
No doubt, too, when the captain or his officers 
attempted to punish him for disobedience there 
would be a desperate fight —for Dick stood not in 
fear of anything that walked on two feet—which 
would not end until the trapper had been severely 
injured and perhaps permanently disabled. 

“ Human natur’! What’ll I do?” cried Dick, 
after he had exhausted himself in his efforts to pull 
off his irons. 


78 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ Watch me and do as I do, as nearly as you can,” 
replied Frank. “ We are completely in the power 
of these men, and there is no way to get out of it. 
While on our voyage from Bellville, I took partic¬ 
ular pains to learn all I could of a seaman’s duties, 
and perhaps I shall be able to be of some assistance 
to you. What we don’t know Lucas and Barton 
will teach us. But, whatever you do, don’t refuse 
duty or talk back, no matter what is said or done to 
you. It will only be worse for you if you do.” 

“ And bear another thing in mind,” said one of 
the sailors, who had been listening to this conver¬ 
sation, “ and that is, you take rank next below the 
cap’n’s dog, and hain’t got no rights of your own!” 

The trapper looked toward Frank, and while the 
latter was explaining that, according to a sailor’s 
creed, those who follow the sea take rank in this way: 
first the captain, then the mates, then the captain’s 
dog, and lowest of all, the foremast hands—while 
Frank was explaining this, there was the sound of a 
commotion on the deck over their heads, and after 
listening a moment the sailors declared that the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 7? 

vessel was about to be taken to sea. And so it proved. 
The anchor was hove up, the sails spread one after 
the other, and finally the prisoners below began to 
feel the increasing motion of the ship. Just then 
the hatch was thrown open and the first mate came 
down the ladder. He walked straight up to Dick, 
unlocked his irons and slapping him on the back 
ordered him to go on deck and lend a hand. Even 
this simple order was Greek to the honest trapper; 
but he understood the word “ go,” and he went,’ 
delighted to find himself in possession of his liberty „ 
once more. Frank would have been glad to go 
with him, for it was anything but agreeable to his 
feelings to be confined below like a felon; but the 
officers wanted to get a little farther away from 
shore before they allowed too many of their unwill¬ 
ing crew the free use of their hands and feet. 

The first order Dick heard when he reached the 
deck was : “ Let fall and sheet home;” and the mate 
giving him a push by the shoulder and a kick at the 
same time, commanded him to “Grab hold of that 
rope and pull as if the sweetheart he left in the 


80 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


backwoods was at the other end of it.” Or, we 
ought rather say that that was the order the mate 
intended to give, but he never finished it, for he was 
knocked down so promptly that it seemed as if his 
foot and the trapper’s right arm were both put in 
motion at the same instant. Dick’s hot blood, which 
was already at fever heat, boiled over completely 
when he felt the weight of the mate’s boot, and he 
wiped out the insult as soon as it was given. 

Of course there was a tumult at once. The sec¬ 
ond mate caught up a handspike and the captain 
descended from his quarter-deck, flourishing a rope’s 
end as he came. They advanced upon the trapper 
from opposite sides, but he was ready and waiting, 
and they must have been astonished at the rough 
reception they met at his hands. With one single 
twist, which was so sudden and powerful that it 
almost dislocated the second mate’s shoulder, Dick 
wrenched the handspike out of his grasp and threw 
it to the deck. Then his long arms swung in the 
air like the shafts of a windmill, one huge clenched 
hand, as heavy as a sledgehammer, fell full in the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


81 


captain’s face, the other alighted on the top of the 
mate’s head, and both these worthies sank to the 
deck on the instant. 

The first mate by this time recovered his feet, and 
picking up a handspike looked all around for the 
trapper; but he was not to be seen anywhere on 
deck. Nor indeed was he to be found about the 
ship. He was gone. 


6 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


CHAPTER V. 


THE TRAPPER’S ADVENTURE. 


^^THAT time is it now, Eugene?” 

u Just nine o’clock. What do you suppose 
is the matter, Uncle ?” 

“ I wish I knew. They are all of them old enough 
and large enough to take care of themselves, but I 
can’t help thinking that there’s something wrong.” 

“ I have half a mind to go ashore and look for 
them.” 

“ I don’t know what good that would do. You 
don’t know where to look, and if they should happen 
to come aboard while you were gone, we should have 
to send some one in search of you, and that would 
cause another delay.” 

The stores were all aboard, the Stranger was 
ready to sail, and had been for more than an hour, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


83 


but three of her company were missing, and so was 
the trapper. Uncle Dick and the boys had been 
impatient at first, but this gradually gave way to a 
feeling of uneasiness and anxiety. Everybody had 
some explanation to offer for Frank’s absence, and 
the prevailing opinion seemed to be that the sailors, 
having got themselves into trouble during the day, 
had been arrested, and that Frank was trying to 
effect their release. Old Bob was more uneasy than 
the rest, and couldn’t make up his mind what to 
think about it, not knowing the dangers which one 
might encounter while roaming about the city after 
dark. His kit and Dick’s were packed and lying at 
the head of the companion-way, and the old fellow 
was in a hurry to be off. Had they been in the 
mountains the trapper’s absence would have caused 
him no anxiety. There Dick knew all about things, 
and was abundantly able to take care of number one; 
but in the settlements he was like a child, and almost 
as incapable of looking out for himself. Old Bob 
was afraid something had happened to him or Frank, 
and the others began to think so too as the hour 3 


84 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


wore away and their missing friends did not appear. 
Uncle Dick finally gave up all hopes of seeing them 
that night, and ordering one watch below, went to 
bed himself, leaving instructions with the officer of 
the deck to call him the moment Frank arrived. 
The impatient boys remained on deck an hour or 
two longer; but at last they also grew weary and 
turned in and went to sleep. 

Just at daylight they were awakened by hasty 
steps on the companion-ladder, and the officer of the 
watch hurried into the cabin and pounded loudly on 
the captain’s door. “ Ay ! ay !” replied Uncle Dick. 

“ That trapper is coming back, sir,” said the 
officer, “ and he’s having a fuss out there on the dock.” 

“ He is having what?” asked Uncle Dick. 

“ He’s in a rumpus of some kind, sir. He’s got 
somebody on his hack and is lugging him along as 
if he were a bag of potatoes.” 

“ It isn’t Captain Nelson or one of the men, is it ?” 
asked Uncle Dick, anxiously. 

“ 0 no, sir. It is a landsman and a stranger.” 

This conversation was carried on in a tone of 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


85 


voice loud enough to be heard by all the boys, who 
were out on the floor in an instant. It was but a 
few seconds’ work to jump into their trowsers and 
boots, and catch up their coats and hats, and they 
were on deck almost as soon as the officer himself. 
A strange sight met their eyes. A short distance 
up the dock was Dick Lewis, running at the top of 
his speed, and carrying on his shoulder a man almost 
as large as himself, who kicked and struggled in 
vain to escape from the strong grasp that held him. 
The load was undoubtedly a heavy one, but the trap¬ 
per moved with it plenty fast enough to leave behind 
two ill-looking fellows, who carried bludgeons in 
their hands, and who were trying to overtake him. 
About two hundred yards farther up the dock were 
two more men, one supporting the other, who was 
limping along half doubled up as if in great pain. 

The boys, wondering greatly, sprang ashore and 
ran up the wharf to meet Dick. The latter, to quote 
from Featherweight, looked as though he had been 
somewhere. His buckskin suit, soaked with water, 
clung close to his person ; his hat was gone, and his 


86 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


face wore an expression that the old members of the 
club had never seen there before. Archie had seen 
it, however, and that was on the day when, seated 
at the camp-fire near the Old Bear’s Hole, years 
before, Frank related to himself and Uncle James 
the particulars of his meeting with Black Bill and 
his party, and the manner in which he had been 
treated by them. 

Dick grinned the delight he felt at meeting the 
boys once more, but did not stop to speak to them. 
He went straight on board the schooner and threw 
off his burden, at the same time seizing his man by 
the collar and jerking him upon his feet in front of 
Uncle Dick Gaylord, who looked at him in amaze¬ 
ment. 

“ Here’s the mean chap that done it all,” said the 
trapper, throwing his full strength into his arm and 
giving the bogus captain—for it was he—such a 
shaking that his teeth fairly rattled. “ Now if 
thar’s any law in the settlements set it a-going.” 

“ What did he do ?” demanded the boys, who had 
followed close at his heels. “Where’s Frank?” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


8T 


“ He’s round on the other side of the ’arth by this 
time, I reckon,” replied Dick, drawing his hand 
across his forehead and looking about as if he were 
overjoyed to find himself among friends once more. 

u I hope they’ve got a horse-shoe big enough to 
hold ’em on, but I’m ’most afeard, ’cause she’s a 
heap bigger nor this little boat o’ your’n.” 

“ What is ?” asked the captain, and the boys grew 
anxious when they saw the expression that settled 
on his face. “ Begin at the beginning and tell us 
all about it.” 

Thus adjured, the trapper launched at once into 
his story, without wasting any time in explanatory 
remarks, and for ten minutes held his auditors spell¬ 
bound. He told how he and Frank had been en¬ 
ticed on board the Tycoon, described the manner 
in which they had been overpowered and confined, 
repeated the conversation that took place between 
Frank and himself in the forecastle, and ended by 
relating the particulars of his “ scrimmage” with the 
officers of the ship, with all of which the reader is 
already acquainted; but he does not know what 


88 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


happened afterward, so from this point we will tell 
the story in our own words. 

The reason Dick could not be found on board the 
ship after his fight with the officers was ended, was 
because he was not there—he had jumped overboard; 
and what was rather singular, none of the crew on 
deck had seen him when he did it. The last time 
they saw him he was clambering into one of the bow- 
boats, and that was the first place they looked for 
him, his concealment being pointed out to the officers 
by a man who was looked upon as the 66 black 
sheep” of the crew, and of whom we shall probably 
hear more as our story progresses. But when the 
officers came to search the boat, Dick was not there; 
he had dropped unseen into the water. 

The trapper was a famous swimmer, and enter¬ 
tained no doubt of his ability to reach the shore ; 
hut even had the vessel been twenty miles at sea, 
he would have trusted himself to the waves rather 
than run the risk of encountering the terrible dan¬ 
gers that awaited the ship and her crew on the “ un¬ 
der side of the earth.” The worst thing he would 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


89 


have to contend with in case he were recaptured, 
would be the tyranny of the captain and his brutal 
officers; hut the sturdy trapper gave not one thought 
to that, for during a life of excitement and adven¬ 
ture he had more than once demonstrated his ability 
to protect himself; but he did think of that ghostly 
ship, the Flying Dutchman, the big cuttle-fish, the 
mermaids and sea-dragons, the whale that swallowed 
Jonah, and which was still roaming about seeking 
whom he might devour, and, worse than all, the 
awful danger of the ship falling off when she came to 
the under side of the earth and was sailing along 
with her masts pointing downward and the crew 
walking with their feet upward. Dick thought of 
all these dangers and swam as if he saw them loom¬ 
ing up close behind him; but with all his exertions 
he could not make headway fast enough to suit him. 
His wet clothing hung upon him like lead and dead¬ 
ened his progress through the water ; so the first 
thing he did when the ship was out of sight, was to 
stop and relieve himself of this encumbrance. He 
took off moccasins and all, and wrapping them up in 


90 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


his hunting-shirt put the bundle on ]jis back and 
tied it around his neck with the sleeves of the shirt. 
After that he made better headway. 

It is hard to tell what would have been the result 
of the trapper’s adventure, had it not been for some 
assistance which fortunately came in his w T ay. Had 
there been light enough so that he could see to direct 
his course, the swim would have been nothing ; but 
there was danger of moving in a circle in the dark¬ 
ness, and so tiring himself out without making any 
headway at all. There were no lights in front to 
guide him, but there were some behind, and after 
looking at them two or three times the swimmer 
became convinced that they were coming toward him. 
There was a vessel of some kind approaching, and 
Dick, changing his course a little to intercept her, 
had the satisfaction of hearing his hail answered, 
and of seeing the little fishing-smack which carried 
the lights thrown up into the wind within a few 
yards of him. 

“ Hello, there !” cried a gruff voice. 

“ Hello, you !” shouted Dick. “ Here I am.” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


91 


“ Well, what do you want?” asked the captain of 
the fishing boat, peering out into the darkness and 
trying to discover whence the hail came. 

“ Is civilized folks human enough to lend a suf¬ 
ferin’ feller-man a helpin’ hand ?” asked Dick, who 
after his recent experience had some serious doubts 
on this point. 

This question was not immediately answered, for 
the skipper did not quite understand it. He held 
a consultation with one of his men and then called 
out— 

“ If you want help, pull this way. I’ve got no 
boat to send out after you !” 

Dick was pulling that way with all his might, 
and guided by the lanterns that w r ere held over the 
side, at last reached the boat, which sat so low in 
the water that he could lay hold of her rail. The 
astonishment of her crew as they hauled aboard a 
man who carried all his wearing apparel around his 
neck, was unbounded. They gave him time to put 
on his clothes and then directed him to the captain 
who was waiting to see him. 


92 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


The very first question that gentleman propound¬ 
ed to him aroused a thousand fears in Dick’s mind. 
The skipper wanted to know where he came from, 
and how he happened to be out there in the water, 
five miles from land ; and the trapper, fearful that if 
he told the truth and acknowledged himself to be a 
deserter, the captain might follow the Tycoon and 
compel him to go aboard of her again, whether he 
wanted to or not, did something he had never done 
before—he made up a story all out of his own head, 
as he told Uncle Dick Gaylord, and queer work he 
made of it. He entered into the particulars of a 
fearful shipwreck that had just occurred. The waves 
were as high as the Rocky Mountains, he said, the 
wind blew so hard that the sailors had to stop all 
work and hold their hair on (this was a quotation 
from one of the stories the trapper had heard in 
the forecastle of the Stranger); his ship was cap¬ 
sized no less than three times, always coming right 
side up again, and doing it so quickly that she did 
not even wet her sails or her deck, and none of the 
crew had a chance to drop off into the water (another 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


98 


quotation); but finally the wind came in such furious 
gusts that it took the masts right out by the roots 
(still another quotation), and the ship filled and went 
down like lead. The trapper said that all this hap¬ 
pened not five minutes before, and that set the crew 
of the fishing-boat into a roar of laughter, for they had 
been out all day, and knew there had scarcely been 
wind enough to raise any white caps. The captain 
used some hard words, and called Dick anything 
but a truthful man ; but the latter affirmed so sol¬ 
emnly that it was all so, that the skipper thought 
that perhaps something had happened after all, and 
spent a long time in cruising about the place where 
Dick had been picked up. 

This delay added to the trapper’s fears. What 
if the Tycoon should come back in search of him ? 
Alarmed by the thought, he labored hard to convince 
the captain that every soul on board the wrecked 
ship, except himself, had gone down with her; 
but finding that the skipper paid no attention to 
him, he changed his story altogether, and declared 
that he had jumped overboard on purpose, and that 


94 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


he had done it because he had taken passage on the 
wrong vessel. He wanted to go to Sacramento, he 
said, but by mistake had boarded a craft bound for 
the “ under side of the earthand as she would 
not turn back and put him ashore, he had no alter¬ 
native but to take to the water and get back as best 
he could. Then the skipper was angry in earnest. 
Ordering Dick to get as far forward as the length 
of the little vessel would allow, and not to open his 
head again as long as he remained on board of her, 
he filled away for the city. 

The trapper was very glad to be let off so easily. 
He had induced the captain to turn his vessel toward 
the shore, and that was all he cared for. He crouched 
down in the bow and meekly submitted to the jokes 
and tricks of the sailors, who never allowed him a 
moment’s peace. He was too completely cowed to 
take offence at anything. He had seen enough of 
civilized life and people to take all the courage out 
of him. 

The moment the fishing boat touched the dock he 
was out and ashore. Then he was himself again. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


95 


When he felt something solid under his feet his 
courage all returned, and he was in just the right 
mood to carry out the exploit he afterward per¬ 
formed. Almost the first man he saw on the dock 
was the bogus captain, who had enticed Frank and 
himself on board the Tycoon. Dick’s blood began 
to boil as soon as his eyes rested on him. His first 
thought was to take summary vengeance on him, but 
he was checked in time by the reflection that he was 
not in the mountains now, and that there were laws 
in the settlements strong enough to punish evil-doers 
of every description. He did not know how to set 
the law in motion, but the captain of the Stranger 
did, and he would take the culprit before him at once. 

The bogus captain, whose business was that of 
shipping-agent and boarding-house keeper, was 
standing in the midst of a group of friends, half a 
dozen of them perhaps, and all men like himself; 
but this did not deter the trapper, who strode up and 
confronted him. The talking and laughing were 
hushed at once, and all eyes were turned upon the 
new-comer, who stood before them with dripping 


96 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


garments, his tall figure drawn up to its full height, 
his eyes flashing and his bony fingers working ner¬ 
vously. He looked dangerous. The bogus captain 
stared at him a moment doubtfully and then a gleam 
of intelligence crossed his face- and he tried to smile. 

“ Why, I thought I had seen you before,” said he, 
thrusting out his hand. “ Come in ! come right into 
the house. Where you been?” 

“Whar do you reckon you seed me last?” de¬ 
manded Dick, holding his arms behind his back, 
for the man seemed determined to shake hands with 
him whether he wished it or not. “ You can’t shut 
up my eyes with none of your palaverin’, now. 
Whar do you reckon you seed me last, I axes you?” 

“Why, let me think a minute,” said the man, 
pulling off his plug hat and digging his fingers into 
his head, at the same time hacking away from the 
enraged giant. “ I see so many of you fellows that 
I can’t call you all by name the minute I meet you.” 

“ My name’s—my name’s-” Dick stopped and 

looked all around, trying to think what he should 
call himself. He did not have a very extensive 



AMONG THE WHALERS. 


97 


circle of acquaintances, and he could’t make up a 
name “ all out of his own head,” as he made up the 
story he told the captain of the fishing-smack. “ My 
name’s Colonel Gaylord,” said he, giving the first 
one that came into his mind. 

“ Ah! yes ; I know you now,” said the bogus 
captain, making another effort to take the trapper 
by the hand. “ You’re the chap I found a good 
berth for a few days ago, ain’t you? Seems to me— 
you know-” 

“Yes,” roared Dick, who could control himself 
no longer, “I know, an’ ’tain’t likely I’ll ever forget, 
nuther. I’m the man you wanted to send round to 
the other side of the ’arth, to be chawed up by whales 
an’ dropped off into the clouds, consarn you—that’s 
who I am, an’ you’ll remember me afore you see the 
last of me, I tell you. Human natur’ ! I wish I 
could tote you out to the mountains fur about ten 
minutes. But I’ll set the law a-goin’ agin you atore 
you see another day; that’s what I’ll do. Come 
along here, you meanest man the ’arth ever saw, 

not even exceptin’ Black Bill—come along! Stand 

7 



98 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


out o’ the way, the rest on you, or I’ll claw you all 
up like a painter!” 

With these words the trapper seized the bogus 
captain by the collar and began pushing him toward 
the Stranger, which he could see still lying in her 
berth where he had left her. The man remon¬ 
strated and threatened, but all to no purpose. Then 
he resisted and called upon his companions for help. 
One of them responded, but was disposed of so 
Quickly and effectually that the others thought it 
best to keep at a safe distance. 

Finding that his man was possessed of more 
strength, activity and determination than he had 
calculated on, the trapper seized him with both hands, 
and swinging him upon his shoulder started for the 
schooner at a rapid run. He brought his prisoner 
in triumph, and stood him up on the deck where all 
could see him. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


99 


CHAPTER VI. 


A SCAMP ON HIS DIGNITY. 


rjHIIS yere is the mean chap that done it all,’’ 
continued the trapper. u Thar’s none of us that’ll 
ever see Frank ag’in. He’s gone round on t’other 
side of the ’arth, an’ some dark night, when he’s 
sailin’ along thinkin’ of nothing, one of them big 
quids (the sailors had called the cuttle-fish ‘ squids’) 
will rise outen the water all on a sudden, wrap his 
arms, two hundred feet long, all about the ship, an’ 
that’ll be the last of Frank. When be you goin’ to 
hang this feller, cap’n ?” 

Dick had an interested and anxious crowd of 
listeners. The officers of the schooner and the boys 
stood ranged in a circle in front of him, and behind 
were the sailors, who at first invaded the sacred pre- 


L of C. 


300 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


cincts of the quarter-deck with much hesitation, 
holding their caps in their hands and momentarily 
expecting an order to retire; but growing bolder by 
degrees, when they found that the captain, although 
he looked their way now and then, had nothing to 
say to them, they crowded up close behind the trap¬ 
per, so that they could hear every word. There w T ere 
also two other listeners—the men with the bludgeons, 
who had followed Dick Lewis in the hope of rescuing 
his prisoner. When these two worthies first came 
up, they acted as if they were about to board the 
vessel without ceremony; but changed their minds 
when they saw half a dozen broad-shouldered sea¬ 
men, in obedience to a sign from the officer of the 
deck, move up into the waist to receive them. The 
sailors, who had a pretty good idea of what had 
been going on, even before they had heard the trap¬ 
per’s story, would have been delighted to have the 
opportunity to toss these men ashore neck and heels; 
and the latter must have seen it in their counte¬ 
nances, for they backed away from the edge of the 
wharf and took up a position from which they could 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


101 


hear and see all that passed on the Stranger’s 
deck. 

Had Frank been as safe out of his troubles as 
Dick Lewis was, the boys would have been highly 
amused by the latter’s description of the scenes 
through which he had passed ; but it was far from 
being a laughing matter now. Frank had been 
kidnapped (“shanghaied” the sailors called it) by 
the captain of the Tycoon or his agent, and there 
was no knowing what might become of him. Per¬ 
haps the hard fare and harder treatment he was 
certain to receive, might drive him to do something 
desperate. Uncle Dick Gaylord, however, was not 
troubled by any such misgivings. He knew that 
Frank possessed courage and prudence in no ordi¬ 
nary degree, and besides there were Lucas and 
Barton, the coxswain, on the same vessel. The 
former was an old whaleman, and the assistance he 
could render Frank in the way of teaching him his 
duties, might enable the boy to keep out of any very 
serious difficulties. But could he help him in any 
way ? That was the momentous question, and Uncle 


102 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Dick walked up and down his quarter-deck with his 
hands behind his hack while he pondered upon it. 

“ Every word this man has uttered, as far as it 
concerns me and my doings, is false from head to 
tail,” declared the bogus captain. 

This was the first time he had spoken since he 
was brought on hoard the vessel. At first he was 
badly frightened, but while the trapper was telling 
his story, he had time to think over his situation and 
determine upon his line of defence. 

“ I dont know anything about this man and the 
other fellow he speaks of,” he continued; “I never 
seen him before this morning, and I never tried to 
pass myself off as the captain of any ship.” 

Dick Lewis eyed him savagely while he was 
speaking, and when he ceased drew back his clenched 
hand. In a moment more the man would have 
measured his length on the deck, had not the cap¬ 
tain interposed. 

“ Get ashore !” said he, shortly. 

“ 0 no, cap’n,” replied the man, with an impu¬ 
dent smile. “ This is a nice way you have of doing 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


103 


business, I do think ! One of your friends com¬ 
mits an assault on me and drags me away from my 
peaceful home, and then you wash your hands of 
the matter by telling me to go ashore. That won’t 
go down, by no means. Twenty dollars for dam¬ 
ages will get rid of me, but not a cent less !” 

“ I can bring a dozen witnesses to prove that 
that man wasn’t once outside of his house last night,” 
said one of the ruffians on the dock. “ I’m one of 
’em, for I was with him all the evening and know 
everything he done.” 

“Rodgers !” exclaimed Uncle Dick. 

“Here, sir,” came the prompt response. 

A stalwart sailor stepped quickly out from among 
his companions, and dashing his cap upon the deck 
stood behind the bogus captain pushing back his 
sleeves. A simple look from Uncle Dick would 
have sent the man flying over the schooner’s side as 
if he had been thrown from a catapult. 

“ This is the last time I shall speak to you,” con¬ 
tinued Uncle Dick. “ Get ashore !” 

The bogus captain thought it best to obey, and 


104 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


that too without a moment’s hesitation. Once on 
the dock he was safe, and there he stopped long 
enough to say a parting word to Uncle Dick. “ This 
matter will be settled in the court-room,” said he, 
with a threatening shake of his head. “ That man 
shall he arrested before he is an hour older.” 

With these w T ords he walked off, followed by his 
companions. The boys looked first at him, then at 
the captain and finally at Dick Lewis, who stood the 
very picture of astonishment. “ Why didn’t you set 
the law a-goin’ ?” the trapper managed to ask at last. 

“ It would have been of no use,” answered the 
master of the schooner. “ Did’t you hear what that 
man on the dock said ? That indicated the defence 
they would bring up. We would find a court-room 
full of witnesses to prove an alibi—that is, that this 
man was somewhere else when the kidnapping was 
done.” 

“But it wouldn’t be true, Uncle Dick,” said 
Archie, who, like all the rest of the Club, invariably 
addressed the old sailor by this affectionate title. 
“ If they swore to that, they would be guilty of per- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


105 


jury, and that is a state prison offence. Dick has 
told the truth.” 

“ I know it. I am just as certain that everything 
he has described to us really happened, as I would 
be had I seen it all with my own eyes; but a justice 
would not take his unsupported word against that of 
a dozen men. And as for perjury, how would you 
fasten the crime upon these false witnesses that 
would be produced? If Frank, Lucas and Barton 
were here, we would have the game in our own hands ; 
but they are miles away. This man knows we can 
prove nothing, and that is what makes him so im¬ 
pudent.” 

“ I wish you had told Rodgers to throw him over¬ 
board, or else let Dick knock him down,” said 
Eugene. 

“ And afterward had the satisfaction of paying a 
fine and costs,” said the old sailor, with a laugh. 
“ By the time your hair is as white as mine, Eugene, 
perhaps you will have learned something. I’ve got 
one fine to pay now.” 

“ Why, how is that ?” asked all the boys at once. 


106 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ Didn’t you hear what that man said just as he 
went away ? There’ll be a policeman down here 
directly.” 

The hoys looked toward the trapper. The ex¬ 
pression of alarm which they had so often seen of 
late, had settled on his face again. He backed up 
against the rail for support, and looked wildly about 
as if he had half a mind to take to his heels. He 
stood more in fear of the law than he did of a griz¬ 
zly bear. He had always thought that there was 
something wrong about it, and now he was firmly 
convinced of the fact. The law, as he understood 
it, was to restrain bad people, who were disposed to 
take advantage of their neighbors whenever an op¬ 
portunity was offered; but he found that it was 
likely to prove a means of punishment to the inno¬ 
cent. It would have been just as impossible to give 
him a clear idea of its workings, as it would to make 
him understand the causes of the trade-winds or the 
theory of the ocean-currents. 

“I’ve said a million times, an’ Frank says that 
more’n a thousand, that I’d never put my old moc- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


107 


casins inside a city again, an’ now I say it onct more 
an’ I’ll stick to it,” said the trapper, solemnly, rais¬ 
ing his hand toward the masthead to give emphasis 
to his words. “ I get skeared to death by cars an* 
steamboats, an’ something’s allers happenin’.” 

“ Shoulder your rifle an’ kit, Dick, an’ let’s be 
off,” said old Bob, who up to this time had been 
a silent and amazed spectator and listener. “ I’m 
afeared.” 

“ So am I, Bob, but I dasen’t. I dasen’t go ; the 
law will ketch me. I wish I was to the ole Bar’s 
Hole, so’t I could crawl in an’ hide myself.” 

Dick leaned back against the rail. again, rubbing 
his hands together and groaning as men sometimes 
do when they are sadly troubled in spirit. The boys 
tried hard to set his mind at rest. They assured 
him that no harm should come to him, for they and 
Uncle Dick were not only able but ready and willing 
to stand between him and all difficulties ; but the 
trapper said he didn’t want them to do it. If any¬ 
body was to go to jail (thrusting people into jail and 
hanging them Dick thought were the only punish- 


108 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


merits in vogue in civilized communities) it should 
be himself and nobody else. Furthermore, he did 
not see why it was necessary that any one should be 
called upon to stand between him and difficulty. 
He had only been following out his natural impulses 
in trying to bring the bogus captain to justice, and 
now he must suffer for it. He shook his head, re¬ 
fusing to be comforted, and showed a desire to be 
alone with his own thoughts; so the boys left him 
and turned to Uncle Dick, who was once more 
pacing his quarter-deck, after holding a short con¬ 
sultation with his officers. 

“I know what you want,” said the old sailor, as 
the boys approached him in a body. “You are 
anxious to know what I am going to do for Frank. 
I can only guess at the best plan, and follow it out 
to the best of my judgment. What do you think 
ought to be done ?” 

The boys had no suggestions to offer. One thing 
was certain, and that was that Frank would not long 
submit to harsh treatment. A young man who had 
commanded a fine vessel in Uncle Sam’s navy would 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


109 


not consent to take rank next below the captain’s 
dog, as the sailors in the Tycoon’s forecastle had 
assured him he would do as long as he remained in 
that ship. If the opportunity were ever offered, he 
would lay his case before the consul of the first port 
at which the vessel touched; and failing that he 
would probably be driven to desert. In either case 
the boys did not expect to see him again. If the 
consul protected him, he would be sent to the 
nearest port in the United States free of expense, 
and he had money enough in his pocket—about 
twenty dollars, Archie thought—to support him 
until he could receive a remittance from home. If 
he was compelled to desert he would probably ship 
on the first vessel he could find, just as Chase had 
done, and she might take him to the remotest corner 
of the earth. All this would sadly interfere with 
the Club’s arrangements. They thought as much 
of Frank as his cousin did—so much that they one 
and all declared that they did not care to continue 
their voyage without him. They couldn’t enjoy 
themselves, for they would worry about him all the 


110 . 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


while, and if they were to be separated from him 
they would rather go home and stay there. If their 
pleasant party and their cruise were to be broken up, 
they had the boarding-house keeper to thank for it, 
and Walter declared that there was no punishment 
known to the law half severe enough for him. 

Uncle Dick listened while the boys were talking, 
and said he fully agreed with them. 44 Even if 
Frank should succeed in escaping from the Tycoon, 
and had a vessel at his command or money enough 
to take him just where he wanted to go, he would 
not know which way to steer to find us,” said he, 
44 for you boys will remember that you did not 
decide upon anything definite, and Frank doesn’t 
know whether we are going to Alaska or Japan.” 

44 And all through my foolishness,” said Eugene, 
bitterly. “ I wish I had given up, and gone where 
the others wanted to go.” 

44 So do I,” said Bab. 

44 Don’t reproach yourselves,” replied Uncle Dick. 
44 You had plenty of sport during your debates, and 
you were not supposed to know that such an emer- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


Ill 


gency as this was about to arise. But perhaps we 
can do something by following the Tycoon.” 

“ Yes, if we only knew where she is going.” 

“ I have an idea that I do know. She is bound 
for the Japan station, so the sailors in her forecastle 
told Dick Lewis. Well, now, she is short-handed. 
She must be, for her mate released Dick from his 
irons and brought him on deck to help make sail. 
She’ll never go on her station without a full crew, 
and the nearest place at which she can get it is the 
Sandwich Islands. There she will undoubtedly ship 
Kanakas enough to make up her complement. Then 
she’ll go out for a three or four months’ cruise, and 
come back and fit out for the Japan station. Now, 
if we can reach Honolulu before she leaves, we shall 
probably be able to effect the release of our men. 
If it were not for this incident that has just hap¬ 
pened I would sail at once.” 

“ Why can’t you do it any way ?” asked Walter, 
who did not like to waste even a moment. 

“ Because we must see Lewis out of his trouble. 
If he goes ashore without some one to protect him, 


112 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


he will be sure to fall into the hands of those 
sharpers, who will frighten him out of the last 
article of value he’s got.” 

“ Cap’n,” said Dick, suddenly, “ will you take us 
with you—me and Bob ?” 

The old sailor looked in astonishment, and so did 
the boys. 

“I’m afeared to go ashore,” continued the trap¬ 
per, who had been holding a council of war with his 
chum, “an’ so is Bob. ’Sides it’s a thing we never 
done yet—run off an’ leave Frank in trouble, an’ 
we’ve knowed him too long to do it now !” 

“ My good fellow,” said Uncle Dick, with a smile, 
“ if Frank were lost in the woods, you and Bob 
would be just the men to assist him ; but you can’t 
help him in any way now.” 

“ Mebbe we can, cap’n. An’ even if we can’t, we 
don’t want to go back hum without knowing what’s 
come on him. We shouldn’t see no peace of mind.” 

Uncle Dick did not speak for several minutes. 
He knew just how much these rude men thought of 
Frank, and told himself that their desire to see him 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


113 


safe among friends again before they took leave of 
him for ever, was perfectly natural; but there were 
the dangers they expected to meet on the “ under 
side of the earth”—the Flying Dutchman, the 
whales, the monstrous “quids”—could they stand 
all these ? “ Lewis,” said he, suddenly, u have you 

and your companion fully made up your minds on 
this point?” 

“ Yes, an’ we won’t never change ’em nuther. 
We allers stand to what we say.” 

“ That settles the matter. Mr. Baldwin, while I 
am gone to the custom house, hail the first tug you 
see and stand by to get under way.” 

The boys would have been delighted by this 
arrangement a few hours before, but their feelings 
were different now. They had something to think 
of besides the amusement they expected the trappers 
to furnish them. 

Uncle Dick went ashore and walked rapidly away, 
leaving the boys to themselves. Although they 
were impatient to be off, the time did not hang heav- 
8 


114 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


ily on their hands, for they had much to talk about. 
They fully expected the trappers to change their 
minds when they saw the preparations that were 
being made for getting under way, but Dick and 
Bob were not that sort. There was a dogged ex¬ 
pression on their faces, such as might have been 
seen there had the backwoodsmen been in the power 
of savage foes who were making ready to torture 
them at the stake. It said that they fully realized 
the dangers before them, and were prepared to meet 
them like men who had never shown the white, 
feather. 

“ Now, if Frank were only here, and if Dick and 
Bob would get rid of some of their foolish notions, 
we could look forward to some fun, couldn’t we?” 
siad Eugene. 

“If and if!” said Walter. “It is surprising 
how often that little word stands in our way.” 

“ I have been thinking that Dick’s short sojourn 
on the Tycoon has made matters worse for Frank 
than they would otherwise have been,” said Bab, 
anxiously. “ The three principal officers have felt 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


115 


the weight of his arm, and of course they’ll have to 
take satisfaction out of somebody.” 

“Dick,” said Archie, suddenly, “why don’t you 
encourage us by saying that Frank will be sure to 
come out all right ? That’s what you used to tell 
us whenever he got into trouble.” 

“ But he was on the prairie then, an’ now he’s 
among civilized folks,” replied the trapper. 

“ Which means, I suppose, that this is the worst 
scrape he ever got into.” 

Dick nodded his head. 

“ I don’t know about that,” said George Le Dell. 
“ I think if he had his choice, he would rather be 
where he is now than in the prison at Shreveport, if 
he had to go through what he did when he made his 
escape. Frank has been in some tight places, but 
somehow he has always managed to squeeze through 
without much trouble.” 

“ And he never was hurt that I remember, except 
when he burned that house in which Colonel Har¬ 
rison made his headquarters,” said Archie. 

“ When you burned it, you mean,” said George. 


116 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ You did that, and if you had been a line instead 
of a staff officer, you would have got another stripe 
around your arm for it, too. I told the Colonel all 
about it after you left our house.” 

“ Why did you do that?” exclaimed Archie, 
hastily. “Now I shall never dare to meet him 
again.” 

“ Ha ! ha !” laughed George. “ Why, he is one 
of your warmest friends. I told him because I 
wanted him to know that the boy who killed that 
bear and beat Somers in a fair race through the 
woods, had something in him. The Colonel scolded 
me for not telling him before. He said if he had 
known it while you were in our neighborhood, you 
wouldn’t have got away from his house for one good 
long month at least. He would have kept you if 
he’d had to put a guard over you.” 

“ Well, I shouldn’t have enjoyed the visit.” 

“ You couldn’t have helped yourself, if plenty of 
hunting, riding and good company are aids to enjoy¬ 
ment.” 

From this subject the boys gradually got back to 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


117 

the one that occupied the most of their minds and 
thoughts, and that was Frank’s sudden disap¬ 
pearance. They asked the trapper a multitude of 
questions, hut learned nothing new, for he had 
already told his story in detail. While they were 
talking Uncle Dick returned, and the tug being 
alongside and the pilot aboard, the lines were cast 
off and the Stranger swung slowly around until her 
how pointed toward the headlands at the entrance 
to the bay. In the bustle and burry that followed 
the boys found time to turn an eye toward the trap¬ 
pers now and then, but they saw no signs of regret 
or alarm on their faces; and when the lines that 
held the tug were let go, and the steamer with a 
farewell shriek of her whistle turned back toward 
the city, and the schooner unfolded her white wings 
one after the other, and the Golden Gate was passed, 
and the broad expanse of the Pacific was fairly 
spread out before them, there were still no signs of 
hacking out. But it was too late now. The die 
was cast, and Dick and old Bob were bound for the 
“ under side of the earth !” 


118 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


CHAPTER VII. 

TOO LATE. 

PJHIE very presence of Uncle Dick was enough 
to infuse new life and comfort into the boys, 
who were disposed to make themselves miserable 
over the absence of their genial companion. The 
old sailor believed in looking on the bright side of 
things, and thought there was no use in worrying 
over the matter that they could not just then better 
in any way. His example made a great change in 
the feelings of the Club. 

“Now, Walter,” said he, briskly, “ we are fairly 
afloat again, and our sailing-master having deserted 
us, we are compelled to call on you to fill his place. 
Suppose you work out a course for us. We’re 
bound for the Sandwich Islands, Eugene; which 
way are they from here ?” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


119 


“ Oh, you can’t catch me on that,” replied the 
boy, “ for I posted myself only a few days ago. 
The twentieth parallel runs through them. They’re 
in the same latitude as Vera Cruz, in Mexico.” 

“ Well, I want to make the run in as short a time 
as may he, so what shall I do?” 

“ Stand to the southwest to get the benefit of 
the northeast trades, and the equatorial current. 
The same route would take you to China or Japan.” 

“ Suppose, now, we were in China and wanted 
to come back to the States : would I follow the 
same course ?” 

“ No, sir. You would steer in a northerly 
direction until you got between the parellels of 
thirty-five and forty-five degrees north latitude, and 
there you would find strong westerly winds to help 
you along. Perhaps you’d get some assistance from 
the North Pacific drift current, but on that point I 
am not sure.” 

“ Well, it is just as well you are not,” shouted 
Walter from the cabin, where he was busy with his 
chart. “ The North Pacific drift current might 


120 


THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB 


help you if you wanted to go to Alaska from China. 
When it strikes the shores of our continent it 
divides, part of it flowing on down the coast and 
forming the California coast current, and the rest 
bending back across the Pacific again; so it would 
retard your progress rather than help you.” 

“ Well, I am not the sailing-master of this craft, 
am I?” replied Eugene. “If I was, I’d keep 
posted. Besides, almost anybody with a chart be¬ 
fore him, could clatter away as though his tongue 
was hung in the middle. Wait till Frank gets back 
if you want to talk about navigation.” 

“ He’s a good one, that’s a fact,” said Uncle 
Dick. “ He’s as fit to command a vessel as I am.” 

Just then Walter came up, having worked out a 
course, which being approved by the captain and 
given to the officer of the deck, the bow of the 
Stranger was brought around a point or two, and the 
voyage was fairly begun. There was nothing to he 
done now, hut to await developments with all the 
patience they possessed. 

But few incidents worthy of record happened 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


121 


during the voyage, which, after they struck the 
trade winds became monotonous enough. The 
schooner bowled along before a fine breeze, and as 
it was never necessary to change the sails, there 
Was no work to be done except ordinary ship’s duty. 
The Club passed the time mostly in reading and 
conversation with the trappers, who, as soon as they 
fully recovered from their sea-sickness, kept a con¬ 
stant lookout for some of those terrible dangers 
which had been so graphically described to them. 
By dint of much talking and argument the boys 
finally succeeded in making them take a more sensi¬ 
ble view of their situation, and as the days wore 
away without bringing with them any of the perils 
they had expected to encounter, the backwoodsmen 
began to act a little more like themselves. But 
when an ignorant person once gets hold of an idea 
it is almost impossible to make him let go of it, and 
the trappers’ minds could not be set wholly at rest. 
They steadily refused to go into the forecastle at 
night, and always slept on deck. The boys found 
the reason for this in a remark they heard Bob 


122 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


make to his companion. They wanted plenty of 
elbow room when they reached the under side of the 
earth, the old fellow said, so that when the schooner 
dropped off among the clouds, they could take to 
the water. They saw sharks, dolphins and flying- 
fish (the trappers began to put more faith in what 
the boys said after they had seen one of the latter 
rise from the water and sail through the air like a 
bird on the wing), and one day the sailors pointed 
out to them an object which made them believe that 
their time had come. It first showed itself while the 
boys were at dinner. They were summoned on 
deck by the officers of the watch, and found them¬ 
selves close alongside the first whale they had ever 
seen. The monster was taking matters very leis¬ 
urely, moving along about a hundred yards from 
the schooner, lifting his huge head out of the water 
now and then and spouting a cloud of spray into the 
air, and although the vessel was running at a rate 
of eight miles an hour, he kept pace with her 
without the least exertion. The boys were all dis¬ 
appointed. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


123 


“ This must be a small one,” said George. 

“ Small!” echoed Uncle Dick. “ How big do 
you think a whale is, any how—as big as the Rocky 
Mountains ?” 

“ No, sir; but I have read that they have been 
found sixty and seventy feet long,” replied George. 

“ Well, this fellow is every inch of eighty, and 
I shouldn’t wonder if he was ninety feet in length.” 

“ I wish some whaler would come along and pitch 
into him,” said Eugene. “I’d like to see the 
operation of catching a whale.” 

“ If fifty whalers should come along they would 
not trouble this fellow,” said Uncle Dick. 

“ Why not ?” 

“ Because he is neither a sperm nor a right whale. 
He belongs to the species known as finbacks. He 
would not yield oil or bone enough to pay for the 
trouble of lowering the boats, and besides he is so 
swift and strong that it would be dangerous to med¬ 
dle with him.” 

The finback kept alongside the schooner for 
nearly a mile, and during that time the boys had 


124 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


ample opportunity 'to take a good view of him. He 
sank and rose at regular intervals, executing the 
manoeuvre with an ease and grace that was astonish¬ 
ing, and now and then he showed so much of his 
huge bulk above the water that the boys opened 
their eyes in amazement, and Featherweight de¬ 
clared that there w T as no end to him. The longer 
they looked at him the larger he seemed to grow. 
At length he began to edge away from the schooner, 
and finally disappeared. Then each boy turned 
and looked at his neighbor to see what he thought 
about it. 

“ What makes you look so sober ?” demanded 
Featherweight of Archie, who stood by pulling his 
chin, and gazing fixedly at the spot where the whale 
had last been seen. 

“I was just thinking,” was the reply. 

“ And I’ll warrant we can all tell what you were 
thinking about,” said George. “ I guess there is 
no one in this small party who would like to be 
ordered into a small boat to attack a beast of that 
size, and you were wondering what Frank’s feelings 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


125 


will be the first time he tries it. Well, I don’t want 
to know them by experience.” 

Archie walked to the side and looked over into 
the water, while George turned to Dick and Bob, 
who just then came up. Their faces were very 
white. 

“ Well, Dick,” said George, “ you have seen your 
first whale, and it isn’t such a terrible looking ob¬ 
ject after all, is it ?” 

“ I dunno,” replied the trapper. “ If the babies 
look like that, what must the ole ones be ?” 

“ The babies ?” repeated George. 

“ One of the fellows showed that thing to me 
when it fust come in sight, and I showed it to Rod¬ 
gers, but he couldn’t see it. Rodgers, he called 
another of the sailors, and he said he could see some¬ 
thing, but it was so small he couldn’t tell whether 
it was a whale or not.” 

“ Now, Dick, don’t you believe a word those men 
in the forecastle say to you,” said Eugene, indig¬ 
nantly. “ Uncle Dick says that is one of the largest 
whales he ever saw.” 


126 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ Wal, Rodgers lie couldn’t see it at fust ’cause 
it was so small, but when he did see it, he said 
mebbee it was a baby. He said the ole one will be 
along purty soon lookin’ fur it, an’ then we’ll see a 
whale. If the ole one don’t find the baby, she’ll 
think we’ve done something to it, an’ she’ll brush 
us off’n the ’arth like a feller would brush a fly off 
his Sundy trowsers.” 

The trappers were frightened again, and for the 
rest of the day kept close company with their young 
friends, no doubt feeling safer in their presence than 
anywhere else. The boys, one and all, exerted 
themselves to correct the wrong impressions they 
had received, but the foremast hands had had the 
first chance at them, as Fred remarked, and it was 
a matter of impossibility to set their fears at rest. 
For a week afterward Dick and his companion kept 
a sharp lookout, expecting every minute to see the 
old whale coming in search of her young one; but 
she did not appear, and the next thing that hap¬ 
pened to relieve the monotony of the voyage, was 
the discovery of land, dead ahead. Walter had 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


127 


been anxiously looking for it for the last twenty-four 
hourso Having taken Frank’s place as sailing-mas¬ 
ter, he was eager to earn a reputation as a navi¬ 
gator, and he was not a little elated to find that 
he had made no mistake. 

The discovery of land set the sailors going again. 
Rodgers and a few of his companions, who, when 
the trappers w'ere in hearing, were continually 
talking about mermaids and dragons and other sea 
monsters, and the awful sights that would be pre¬ 
sented when they came to the under side of the 
earth, looked through their hands at the dim out¬ 
line in advance, and after comparing notes in a tone 
of voice loud enough for Dick and Bob to hear, de¬ 
clared that it wasn’t land after all—that the man 
at the mast .was mistaken. 

“ That’s no more land nor I be,” declared Rod¬ 
gers. “ If my head is worth a tar-bucket, it is the 
old whale. She can’t find her baby, and so she’s 
coming down to ask the skipper what he’s done 
with it. She’s coming like lightning too. Can’t 


128 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


you see the water a boiling up under her bows? ] 
can.” 

“ Now, mate, I think it’s a squid,” said another, 
“ and he’s waiting there to gobble up something. 
I can see his long arms resting on the water, and 
ready to catch the first moving thing that comes 
within reach. I hope the cap’n ’ll keep away a few 
points.” 

“ Mebbe he don’t know what it is,” said a third, 
“ and I think Lewis had better go aft and tell him 
about it—I do indeed !” 

“ ’Taint a whale nor a squid neither,” said an old 
gray-headed seaman, who, using his hands for a 
spy-glass, had been looking at the island ever since 
they first came in sight of it. “ It’s the equator. 
I can see the waves rolling over it!” 

“ Well, Jack, you’ve been to sea longer nor me and 
oughjt to know about these things,” said Rodgers. 
“ I seen the waves, but I thought they was the bone 
the whale was carrying in her teeth. When we get 
over it, if we ever do, we’re on the under side of the 
earth, ain’t we ?” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


129 


“ That’s what’s the matter,” said the gray-headed 
sailor. 

Dick fairly jumped, as each one of these opinions 
was solemnly advanced, and hurried off to speak to 
the boys. The latter, especially Eugene and Archie, 
could hardly refrain from laughing outright at his 
ludicrous display of terror, but they quieted his 
fears as well as they could, and by giving him a 
solemn promise that they would see him safely 
through any danger that might arise if he would 
remain close by them, they succeeded in keeping 
him out of the company of the foremast hands all 
the rest of the day. But it was not until nearly 
sunset that the fears the sailors had conjured up 
w r ere entirely banished. By that time the object 
that had excited his alarm was so plainly visible 
that Dick could see for himself that it was land and 
nothing else. 

The boys did not see many of the new and novel 
sights that were presented to their gaze, as the 
Stranger made her way through the strait that runs 

between the islands of Hawaii and Mani. They 

9 


130 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


had eyes for nothing but the whale ship they ex¬ 
pected to find there. The huge fishing canoes they 
saw the next day ; the natives that came aboard 
in swarms while they were running about in the 
light, baffling winds they found under the lee of the 
land, the fruits they offered for barter—none of 
these things possessed the interest for them that 
they would under almost any other circumstances. 
They paid little attention to anything but the ves¬ 
sels that now and then passed them. But the Tycoon 
w T as not among them. 

Uncle Dick took time, as he passed along, to look 
into every bay and inlet where the Tycoon was likely 
to be, and it was not until nearly a week after they 
first sighted the Sandwich Islands that the Stranger 
dropped anchor outside the coral reef that marks the 
entrance to the harbor of Honolulu. As the wind 
came strong down the mountain gorges, everything 
was made snug, and then the gig was called away 
and the captain set out for the town, leaving the 
boys to enjoy themselves as best they could during 
his absence. But it was dull business, this trying 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


131 


to pass away the time when they were so impatient 
and anxious. They kept up their spirits by telling 
one another that something would surely happen to 
restore their friend Frank to them, but the face 
that Uncle Dick brought hack with him, when he 
returned six hours later, dashed all their hopes to 
the ground. No sooner was the gig fairly hoisted 
at the davits, than he gave the order to heave up the 
anchor and go to sea. The hoys stood around and 
looked at one another in silence while these orders 
were being executed, and when Uncle Dick went 
into the cabin, they followed him. 

“ Too late, hoys,” said he. 

“ Has the Tycoon been here?” asked Walter. 

“ Yes; she has done just what I thought she 
would do. She shipped a crew of natives and has 
gone out for a three months’ cruise. When that is 
ended she will come back and fit out for Japan.” 

“ And what about Frank ?” 

“ Haven’t heard a word of him. The consul saw 
only the captain, and he was here just long enough 


132 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


to ship his crew. We missed our object by just 
three days.” 

“ I don’t understand how we missed it at all,” 
said Eugene. “We certainly lost no time.” 

“ But you must remember that the Tycoon is a 
large ship, and that she probably carries as much 
canvas in her courses and spanker as we can spread 
on all our masts and yards. We can’t expect to 
sail with her.” 

“What are we going to do now?” asked Bab. 

“We are going to see if we can find her. It will 
be almost like searching for a needle in a haystack, 
but we don’t want to remain here idle for three 
months.” 

“ Of course not,” said Eugene, quickly. “ That 
would never do. While we are moving about we 
shall feel that we are doing something for Frank, 
even if we don’t find him.” 

“Exactly,” said Uncle Dick. 

“What will you do if we find the Tycoon?” 
inquired Walter. 

“ I shall probably be able to present the matter 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


133 


to her captain in such a way that he will be willing 
to release Frank and make him some amends for 
what he has done—I think I shall be able to do so,” 
said the old sailor, with a look in his eye that spoke 
volumes. “ But if I should fail, he will be arrested 
as soon as he comes back here.” 

This was all Uncle Dick had to say, and it 
afforded the boys very little satisfaction. They 
had confidently expected that Frank would be 
restored to them when they reached the Sandwich 
Islands, and this was a sore disappointment. Where 
was he now ? Where was he while the Tycoon 
was lying in the harbor of Honolulu ? What was 
the reason he had not done as he advised the de¬ 
serter to do—insisted on seeing the American con¬ 
sul? The boys could only speculate upon these 
points, and they had ample leisure to do it—almost 
six weeks. During that time every ship they 
could come up with was spoken, but the Tycoon 
was not among them, and neither could they gain 
any information concerning her. The boys were 
getting discouraged and very down-hearted, and 


134 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


had it not been for Uncle Dick there is no telling 
how they would have lived through it. 

One night the officer of the deck reported that 
there was a whaler a few miles distant “ trying 
out”—that is, rendering out the oil of a whale she 
had recently captured. The Stranger’s how was 
at once pointed toward her, and at sunrise the two 
vessels were within speaking distance. 

“ Now just listen to me a minute and I’ll tell you 
what’s a fact,” said Perk, who with the rest of the 
Club stood in the waist, attentively regarding the 
ship as she came toward them carrying a huge hone 
in her teeth, “ there’s something about that craft 
that looks familiar.” 

“I was just thinking so myself,” said Eugene. 

He glanced toward Uncle Dick, who, during the 
last quarter of an hour had kept his glass levelled 
at the ship, and edged away toward the officer of 
the deck. “ It can’t he that that is the vessel 
we’re looking for, is it, Mr. Baldwin ?” said he. 

“If it isn’t her, it’s her sister,” replied the offi¬ 
cer, with some excitement. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


135 


Before Eugene could carry this news to his com¬ 
panions the ship backed her main topsail, and as 
Uncle Dick, with an exclamation of astonishment 
that had a good deal of meaning in it, seized his 
trumpet, her captain appeared upon her bulwarks. 
The boys, through their glasses, had a plain view 
of him, and the general verdict was that he was a 
rough-looking fellow—one who, judging by his ap¬ 
pearance, was capable of almost anything. 

“ It is the same man we saw in the whale-boat,” 
declared Eugene, his voice rendered husky by ex¬ 
citement. “ I know him, even if he hasn’t got his 
gray suit on.” 

“ I confess that I can’t see any resemblance,” 
said Bab, taking his glass down from his eyes long 
enough to bring it to a better focus. 

It would have required a person with a very 
lively imagination to recognise anybody at that 
distance, especially in Such clothes as those in which 
the captain was dressed. He wore a tarpaulin on his 
head, a red shirt open at the throat, and a pair of 
coarse trowsers, which were thrust into the tops 


136 THE sportsman’s club 

of heavy sea boots; and as some of these articles 
had been made for larger, and others for smaller 
men than himself, they fitted him oddly enough. 

“ Ship ahoy !” roared Uncle Dick. 

“ Ay, ay, sir !” shouted the captain of the whaler. 

“What ship is that?” asked Uncle Dick. 

The answer was given in a loud tone of voice, 
hut the words were indistinct. The captain talked 
as if he had a mouthful of something. The only 
part of the reply that the Stranger’s crew under¬ 
stood was that the ship was seventeen months out 
of Nantucket, and that she had nine hundred bar¬ 
rels of oil in the hold. 

“ What does he say is the name of his ship, Mr. 
Baldwin ?” asked Uncle Dick. 

“ I understood him to say Eli Coon, sir,” said 
the officer. 

“ That sounds wonderfully like Tycoon, doesn’t 
it ?” whispered George. 

“And what does he call himself, Mr. Baldwin ?” 
continued Uncle Dick. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


137 


“ Captain Hank Wilson, were the words I caught, 
sir.” 

“What schooner is that?” shouted the captain 
of the whaler. 

“ The Stranger, Captain Richard Gaylord, just 
out of Honolulu,” answered Uncle Dick ; and the 

i 

words were so plain and distinct that the master of 
the whaler could have heard them if he had been 
twice as far away. 

“ I’ll send a boat aboard of you.” 

“ Very good, sir,” replied Uncle Dick. “ There 
is something strange about this, Mr. Baldwin,” he 
added. “ That is the Tycoon if I ever saw her, but 
that isn’t the scoundrel who commanded her w T hile 
she was in the harbor of San Francisco. Stand by, 
now, and if any of our men come off in his boat 
we’ll see that they don’t go back.” 

There was no confusion on board the Stranger— 
there never was, for the discipline was too perfect 
for that—but everybody was highly excited. And 
the excitement was increased when the second mate 
went forward with the order, which he gave in a 


138 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


low voice : “ All hands stand by, and be ready to 
jump when you bear the word .’ 7 The sailors knew 
what that meant, and while some pushed back their 
sleeves, others laid handspikes where they could 
find them again at a moment’s warning ; and having 
thus prepared for any emergency, they moved to 
the side in a body, and awaited the coming of the 
whaler’s boat with no little impatience. She came 
in sight at length, rounding the stern of the ship. 
Presently one of the men whispered something, which 
was passed along from one to another, until it 
reached the ears of the boys in the waist : 

“ I see Lucas in that boat, and Barton too !” 

“But where is Frank ?” said Archie, anxiously. 
“ If he is aboard that ship now is his time to jump 
overboard and swim out to us.” 

“ Look at Dick Lewis,” whispered Bab, sud¬ 
denly. 

The boys with one accord turned their eyes 
toward the trapper. He stood on the forecastle with 
his hands on the rail, over which he was leaning as 
far as he could without losing his balance, and his 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


139 


eyes were fastened upon the approaching boat with 
a gaze such as a hawk might bestow upon the prey 
it was about to seize. As the boat aproached nearer 
and veered round to come alongside, Dick gradu¬ 
ally drew back out of sight and walked toward the 
stern to meet her. 

“ If that is the captain of the Tycoon standing 
in the stern of that boat,” said Archie, “ he will be 
a well-thumped man before he gets fairly on deck, 
unless Uncle Dick interferes in time.” 

“ It isn’t he,” said Eugene. “ I was mistaken. 
But he’s a hard-looking customer all the same.” 

The boat came nearer with every stroke of its 
crew, but the boys could not see any one in it whom 
they recognised. The backs of the oarsmen were 
turned toward them, and the captain kept his tar¬ 
paulin drawn low over his forehead, while the wind 
had turned the collar of his shirt up about his ears, 
so that his face was most effectually concealed. 

With a few strokes more the boat was alongside, 
and the red-shirted captain’s head appeared above 
the Stranger’s rail. . Then Dick began to bestir 


140 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


himself. With a bound like a tiger he sprang for¬ 
ward and grasped the captain by the shoulders. 

“Avast there, Lewis!” roared Uncle Dick. 
“ What are you about ? If you attempt any violence 
I’ll throw you over to the whales !” t 

“ No, I reckon not,” replied the trapper. “ This 
feller can’t fool ole Dick Lewis, no matter what sort 
o’ clothes he’s got onto him !” 

As he said this he dragged the captain bodily over 
the rail, and lifting him in his arms as he would an 
infant, carried him toward the quarter-deck. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


141 


CHAPTER VIII. 

GENTLEMAN BLACK. 

on deck now, and let me give you fair warn¬ 
ing that if you don’t behave yourselves you’ll 
go overboard before you can think twice !” 

It was the mate of the Tycoon who spoke, and 
who gave this order to Erank and the three sailors 
in the forecastle, after he had released them from 
their irons. The officer did not look much as he did 
the last time Frank saw him. He wore a handker¬ 
chief about his head and over his left eye, but it did 
not wholly conceal his face, which was badly swollen 
and discolored. He was in a fair way to remember 
his meeting with the trapper for some time to come. 

During the hour that Frank was confined in the 
forecastle his mind was exceedingly busy. His 
companions in trouble civilly answered all the 


142 


THE SPORTSMAN S CLUB 


questions he asked them, but did not seem inclined 
to talk, so Frank had opportunity to think over his 
situation and try to determine upon some course of 
action. The first thing he did was to congratulate 
himself on the fact that none of his companions 
were with him on the Tycoon. Had Walter, Bab, 
Archie or any of the rest gone ashore with him 
when he went after his rifle, they would now have 
been in the same predicament as himself; and 
according to Frank’s way of thinking that would 
have been'a calamity indeed. He expected to suf¬ 
fer—his mind was fully made up to that,—but he 
was strong and healthy and better able to endure 
hardship than any of the young friends he had left 
on board the Stranger. He had no fears for 
Dick Lewis. The trapper was as tough as a pine 
knot—nothing seemed to make any impression on 
him—and if he could only be induced to keep his 
temper under control, and pay no attention to the 
blows and insults he was sure to receive, he would 
get on well enough. Still he thought more of him 
than he did of Lucas and Barton, who were sleeping 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


143 


soundly in their bunk. These two were old sailors 
and could stand anything. They were not likely 
to have as easy times as they had had on board the 
Stranger, hut they were accustomed to hard work 
and hard treatment, and when safe off the Tycoon 
they would have another story to help while away 
the lonely hours of the mid watch. 

Thus it will be seen that Frank was disposed to 
make the best of his misfortunes, and to look on the 
bright side of things. But there was one fact that 
troubled him not a little, and that was, his connec¬ 
tion with the Club was severed. He did not ex¬ 
pect to see any of its members again, not even 
Archie, for years to come. He would be released 
from the Tycoon some day—-just as soon as he could 
gain the ear of some American consul for a mo¬ 
ment—hut he would not know which way to turn 
to find the Stranger, and so would have nothing 
left him but to make the best of his way back to 
Lawrence. That would be a great disappointment 
to him. He had anticipated much pleasure from 
his vist to foreign countries, and it was hard to 


144 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


abandon the voyage, just as bis expectations were 
about to be realized, and go back to the monotonous, 
bum-drum routine of village life. But as there was 
no help for it, it was useless to repine, Frank told 
himself. He would do his duty as well as he could 
while he remained on board the Tyooon, but he was 
under no obligations to stay with her any longer 
than he was compelled to do so; and the first time 
she dropped anchor in port there would be one of 
her crew missing, unless the officers took the pre¬ 
caution to deprive him of his liberty. 

While Frank was meditating in this way the mate 
came into the forecastle, and after taking off his 
irons, ordered him on deck. Ascending the ladder 
he found a small crew engaged in setting things to 
rights. The third mate, who met him as he came 
up, put him to work with the rest, and for the next 
hour Frank was kept so busy that he did not have 
time to see much of his surroundings. He took a 
look around now and then for Dick Lewis, and 
wondered what sort of work the clumsy trapper 
would make in doing sailor’s duty. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


145 


“Was you looking for your pardner, sir?” asked 
^ seaman who was busy at his side. (The u sir” 
came out almost involuntarily, as if the man instinct¬ 
ively felt that Frank was in some way entitled to 
that show of respect.) 

“ Yes ; I was looking for that tall, broad-shoul¬ 
dered man in buckskin who came aboard with me.” 

“ Well, sir, he’s gone !” 

“ Gone ! Where ?” 

“ I don’t know, for he can’t be found alow nor 
aloft. He must have jumped overboard.” 

“ 0, I hope not!” said Frank anxiously. 

“ If he has, it is all right, sir, because he’d a 
done it sooner or later. I’ll not stay aboard here 
much longer, unless there’s a great change for the 
better. Things couldn't be worse.” 

“ Don’t do anything desperate,” said Frank. 
“It won’t pay. But what made this man of whom 
we were speaking jump overboard?” 

“ I don’t know, sir. I was busy when he came 
up. The first thing I knew there was a rumpus; 

the cap’n and two of the mates were laid out as 

10 


146 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


flat as slap-jacks, and the man hasn’t been seen 
since.” 

“Were we far from shore?” 

“ Only about three or four miles.” 

“ 0, then it is all right. Dick is safe. He can 
swim double that distance.” 

“Well, I can’t; but I wish I could have gone 
with him. I’ve seen two men go overboard since 
I’ve been on this craft, and if I was with ’em now 
among the sharks, my troubles would all be over.” 

Here was direct confirmation of the story the 
deserter had told on board the Stranger. Frank 
drew a long breath, and from that moment a settled 
determination took possession of him. 

The work was all done at last, the watches told 
off and one of them ordered below. The one to 
which Frank belonged remained on deck to handle 
the ship, which was making long boards to gain an 
offing. Two or three times every hour they were 
called upon to trim the sails as the ship changed 
her course and stood off on another tack, and the 
rest of the time the crew lounged about the wind- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


147 


lass. But there was none of that story-telling in 
which the crew of the Stranger engaged on such 
occasions, to make the time hang less heavily on 
their hands. The men sat sullen and silent, and as 
they were no company for Frank, he strolled aft to 
make an inspection of the craft which was likely to 
be his home for long weeks and perhaps months to 
come. She was different from other ships he had 
seen only in the number of boats she carried at her 
davits, and in her try-works, which were fitted up 
amidships. These were built of masonry, contained 
three large kettles, and were so constructed that a 
body of water could be kept under the furnace to 
prevent the fire from burning the deck. 

Having seen all he cared to see, Frank went 
forward again, and leaning over the windlass thought 
of the friends he was fast leaving behind him and 
of the trapper. He hoped from the bottom of his 
heart that Dick had jumped overboard. If such 
was the case he had saved himself many an hour of 
suffering, and had placed himself in no danger. It 
was but a short distance to the shore for such a 


148 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


swimmer as he knew the trapper to be, and besides 
there were vessels constantly passing in and out of 
the harbor, so that on a calm night like that he had 
only to call for help to get it. The trapper had 
learned enough from the three men in the forecastle, 
if he could only remember it, to put Uncle Dick 
Gaylord on the track of the Tycoon, and perhaps 
matters might not turn out so badly after all. If 
the Stranger followed the Tycoon to Japan, his 
release would certainly be effected ; but how would 
he fare in the meantime ? He wished that some 
discontented boy who had read yellow-covered 
novels until he had become thoroughly disgusted 
with home and all its surroundings, and sighed for 
the wild, free, romantic life of a sailor, could be in 
his place just then. 

A short time before Frank’s watch on deck was 
ended, he heard a rustling in one of the bunks be¬ 
low, and looking into the forecastle saw that the 
boatswain’s mate, having come to his senses, was 
sitting up and staring about him in great bewilder¬ 
ment. The old-sea dog did not know where he was, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


149 


but he quickly became aware that he was aboard 
some craft that was in motion, and catching up his 
cap he sprang out of his bunk and ran up the lad¬ 
der. At the top he found Frank, whom he recog¬ 
nised at once. 

“ Where are we, cap’n?” he exclaimed; “ and 
how long have we been under way ?” 

The sailors belonging to the Stranger’s crew were 
pretty well acquainted with the history of their 
captain and his passengers. They conceived a 
great respect for Frank when they learned that he 
had been all through the late war, and that he had, 
by his own unaided efforts, worked his way from the 
forecastle to the quarter-deck, and falling into Uncle 
Dick’s habit, they invariably addressed him by his 
old naval title, and were as careful to salute him 
whenever they passed him as they were to salute 
their commander. 

Before Frank had time to reply, the boatswain’s 
mate had glanced about the deck of the whaler, and 
some faint suspicions seemed to creep into his mind. 
“ This ain’t the Stranger, cap’n !” said he. 


150 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“Who are you talking to?” demanded the first 
mate, who just then came forward. 

“ I was speaking to Cap’n Nelson, sir,” was the 
reply. 

“Who is he? Where is he?” asked the mate, 
roughly. 

“ There he stands, sir.” 

“Well, you just drop all that,” said the officer, 
who was plainly very much surprised, “ and hereafter 
bear in mind that there is only one captain aboard 
this ship and only one first mate. Get on deck, 
here. You belong to this watch!” 

“Ay, ay, sir,” replied Lucas. “Now here’s a 
lubberly go, cap’n,” he added in a low tone, as the 
mate went aft out of earshot. 

“ Be careful,” said Frank, quickly. “ Remember 
the mate’s order and drop that title and all others 
when you speak to me. Just recollect that I occupy 
a lower position aboard this craft than you do, for 
you are an able seaman and I am not.” 

“ But what craft is this and what’s happened us?’* 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


151 


asked the boatswain’s mate, earnestly—“ shang¬ 
haied?” 

“ Yes, and this ship is the Tycoon.” 

“ I knew it,” said the old sailor, striking his open 
palm with his clenched hand. “ Serves me right.” 

“ I don’t know how you came here. Perhaps you 
can tell.” 

w I took a drink, sir,” said Lucas, hanging his 
head. 

“ Ah ! yes; and you didn’t get it out of the scut¬ 
tle-butt either, did you? Pure water would not 
have robbed you of your senses.” 

Then Frank went on to tell of his meeting w T ith 
the bogus captain and the manner in which he and 
the trapper had been enticed on board the whaler. 
The old sailor was greatly distressed to know that 
it was through him that Frank had been brought 
into trouble. He offered to make amends by jump¬ 
ing overboard, and seemed to be hurt because Frank 
would not consent to it. While he w r as trying to 
comfort the mate the watch was called and Frank 
and the rest ordered below. 


152 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Thus far things seemed to be working as well as 
could be expected under the circumstances. Frank 
had heard a few hard words from the officers, but 
he had seen no blows struck. This, however, was 
only the calm that preceded the storm. The next 
morning the captain made his appearance on deck, 
just as the crew were ordered to turn to, and then 
the trouble began. Frank recognised him at once, 
for he wore the same clothes he had on when he 
passed the Stranger in the whale-boat. He proved 
to be quite as brutal as he looked, and a constitu¬ 
tional grumbler. He found fault with everything. 
Nothing could be done to suit him. He swore 
at the officers, and they in turn swore at the men, 
and struck right and left with whatever came first 
to their hands—that is, the first and second mates 
did. The third mate, whom Frank had heard 
addressed as Mr. Gale, took no part in the swearing 
and striking. He did not speak to the men as if 
they were dogs, but his orders were just as em¬ 
phatic, just as readily understood and quite as 
promptly obeyed. Frank took a liking to the man 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


153 


at once. Like himself, he seemed very much out 
of place on board the Tycoon. 

The captain was anxious to get his small crew 
into shape for work before he reached the fishing- 
grounds, and almost the first thing he did was to 
order out a “dummy whale,” which was a spar 
towed over the stern. Then the boats’ crews were 
selected. There proved to be enough to man two 
boats, leaving a sufficient number of the crew on 
hoard to act as ship-keepers. Frank and Lucas were 
assigned to the captain’s boat, the former being 
seated at the bow oar. This was a position of 
responsibility, as Frank very soon learned. A 
whale when struck by a harpoon sometimes starts 
to run; and in such a case it is the duty of the bow 
oar to seize the line, draw the boat up alongside 
the whale, and hold it there while the captain uses 
his lance. 

Everything being in readiness, the boats were 
lowered, and for the next three hours were manoeu¬ 
vred about the spar, until it seemed to Frank that 
the inside of his hands was all in a blaze. To make 


154 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


matters worse, the captain swore at him for his 
awkwardness, and took him to task for answering 
a Very good, sir !” in response to an order, when he 
should have said “ Ay, ay, sir !” An officer in the 
navy is required to answer “ Very good, sir,” when 
receiving a command from a superior, to show that 
he understands it; but Frank was not in the navy 
now, and neither was he an officer. He was a fore¬ 
mast hand on board a whaler, occupying a position 
a good deal lower than the captain’s dog, he began 
to think. 

The boats were finally ordered back to the ship, 
and after they had been hoisted at the davits, the 
falls laid down in Flemish coil on deck, and the 
spar hauled aboard, Frank heard the order passed— 

“ Send that gentleman in the black suit aft 
here.” 

Frank knew in a moment that he was the one 
designated. He claimed to be a gentleman and he 
wore a suit of black clothes—he was the only one 
on board who did—so he promptly answered to the 
summons. “ Here, sir,” said he. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


155 


When he reached the quarter-deck he removed 
his hat and waited for the captain to speak to him. 

“ So you know your name, do you?” exclaimed 
the skipper, gruffly. 

“ My name is Nelson, sir.” 

“But it suits me to call you Gentleman Black.” 

“Very—ay, ay, sir,” replied Frank, who knew 
that he was expected to say something. 

“ Shoulder that handspike,” continued the cap¬ 
tain, pointing out the implement, “and march up 
and down the deck like a soger as you are. Carry 
it until you learn not to say 4 very good’ to me. 
What business is it of yours whether my orders are 
very good or very bad ? I’ll soon take them airs 
out of you.” 

Frank picked up tne nandspike, and placing it on 
his shoulder, began walking up and down the deck 
like a sentry on his beat. A landsman would have 
seen no significance in this punishment, but the 
sailors did, and the boatswain’s mate and the cox¬ 
swain (the latter had recovered his senses and gone 
to work with the rest) were highly indignant. A 


156 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


seaman regards it as an insult to be called a soldier. 
It implies that he is a “ skulker”—that he shirks 
his duty. 

This was the second time that Frank had been 
punished on board ship. His first offence, as we 
know, was committed while he was in the navy, on 
board the receiving ship. He spilled some water 
on deck, and was obliged to wipe it up and carry a 
swab about the vessel until he saw some one else 
doing the same thing. He might have carried that 
swab all day, had not Archie taken pity on him and 
effected his release. His jolly little cousin was not 
at hand to help him now. Frank was glad that he 
was far away, and in no danger of ever being placed 
in a situation like his own. 

Frank found that even a handspike grows heavy 
after a while, and when he had carried it four long 
hours, he would have been glad to put it down and 
rest; but his release did not come until his watch 
was called at twelve o’clock that night. From noon 
until midnight he paced the deck without a moment’s 
pause, a bite to eat or a drop to drink. He was 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


157 


tired and sleepy, but was obliged to remain on 
deck four hours longer, or until the watch to which 
he belonged was ordered below. It was pretty hard, 
Frank told himself, and provoking, too, to find 
somebody ready to make sport of him, as one of the 
sailors in his watch did when he went forward. It 
was the “ black sheep” of the crew—the same one 
who pointed out the trapper’s supposed hiding-place 
in the bow-boat. His name was Gardener, but some 
one had christened him Calamity, and that was 
what he was generally called. Some of the crew had 
warned Lucas and Barton to be very careful what 
they said in this- man’s presence. He w’as the cap¬ 
tain’s pet. He was never punished like the rest, 
and the reason probably was because he made it his 
business to keep the officers posted in everything 
that was said and done in the forecastle. 

“Well, Gentleman Black,” said Calamity, as 
Frank approached the windlass around which the 
Watch were gathered, “ how do you like the taste 
you have had of the Tycoon’s discipline? You 


158 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


can’t come soldiering aboard here with your airs and 
your graces-” 

“ Belay that!” cried the coxswain, jumping to his 
feet. “ You’re a soldier yourself and a tale-bearer 
besides, Calamity, and any more such language as 
that will breed a row that’ll have to be settled by 
you and me the very first time we get ashore. 
That’s a word with a bark on it!” 

Calamity, like the coward he was, slunk back out 
of sight immediately, and in a few minutes got up 
and walked away. 



AMONG THE WHALERS. 


159 


J 

CHAPTER IX. 

“THERE SHE BLOWS.” 

JT soon became evident to all on board the Ty¬ 
coon that Captain Barclay—that was the name 
of the master of the ship—was in a great hurry. 
Whaling captains, while on fishing-grounds, gener¬ 
ally try to get over as much space as they can w T hile 
daylight lasts, and to remain as nearly in one spot 
as possible during the night. By following this 
plan they can hunt over every mile of the ground, 
and lose no chance of finding the game of which 
they are in search. Captain Barclay, however, car¬ 
ried all the sail he could crowd, both night and day. 
The old sailors, Lucas and Barton among the rest, 
knew where he was going, and when Frank heard 
them express their opinions he had new cause for 


uneasiness. 


160 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“He’s bound for the Sandwich Islands,” said Lu¬ 
cas, one day. “ He hasn’t got men enough aboard 
here to do anything, and he’s going after a crew.” 

“ Then we can make up our minds that we have 
seen the last of the Stranger,” said Frank. 

“Why, bless you,” said Lucas, “I never did ex¬ 
pect to see her again. I never said so before because 
I saw that you kept hankering after her, and I want¬ 
ed you to keep your spirits up as long as you could.” 

Frank’s last hope was gone now, and it was only 
by a great effort of will that he kept himself from 
giving away utterly to his despondent feelings. “ I 
have seen the last of my friends,” thought he. “ I 
have no one to rely on except myself. I must drag 
out a miserable existence here till I see a chance to 
escape, and then get home as best I can. I might 
just as well make up my mind to it.” 

And he did. He accepted what he believed to 
be the inevitable, as gracefully as he could, and 
worked hard to keep his thoughts from wandering 
back to the pleasant little cabin of the Stranger, in 
which he had .spent so many happy hours. lie 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


161 


learned rapidly when once he made up his mind to 
it, and won many a word of praise and encourage¬ 
ment from Lucas and Barton, who declared that he 
was as handy as a pocket in a shirt. His services 
speedily attracted the attention of the mate, who 
one day addressed him something after this fashion, 
only using much stronger language— 

“ I have half a mind to trice you up, Gentleman 
Black !” 

It happened just after a sudden squall, which 
struck the ship and threw her over almost to her 
beam ends. The topsails were clewed up, and when 
the crew were ordered aloft, Frank was the first to 
mount the rigging. He made his way to the main 
royal, and stowed it as quickly and neatly as if he 
had been accustomed to the business all his life. 
He had learned this part of a seaman’s duty more 
readily than the rest, because he took the most in¬ 
terest in it. He felt excited and exhilarated when 
he found himself clinging to the swaying yard, with 
the wind whistling about his ears and the white-cap3 

rolling beneath him, while the ship lay over at such 

11 


162 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


an angle that, had he lost his hold, he would have 
fallen into the water thirty feet from her side. He 
was always among the first to respond to an order 
to reef or furl topsails, and perhaps he liked this 
duty best because there was danger in it. 

Having performed the work of stowing the royal, 
Frank descended to the deck, where he was met by 
the first officer, who had kept his eye on him while 
he was aloft. “ Yes, sir, I’ve the best notion in the 
world to trice you up !” he repeated. 

“ What for, sir?” asked Frank, opening his eyes 
in great surprise. 

The young sailor was well satisfied with the work 
he had just performed, and wondered what he had 
done that was wrong. By strict attention to his 
work he had thus far succeeded in keeping out of 
any serious difficulty since the affair of the hand¬ 
spike. True, he had been sworn at, had been sent 
aloft several times to slush down the masts, and 
had worked industriously for three hours knocking 
the rust off the anchor, and all because the mate 
thought he was a trifle too “ airy” sometimes ; but 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


163 


these were light punishments compared with those 
which some of the men received. He had seen a 
sailor knocked down with a belaying pin as fast as 
he could get up, and another hauled up by the w'rists 
until he swung clear of the deck, and a fifty-pound 
snatch-block made fast to his feet. 

“ I am not conscious of having done anything 
out of the way,” continued Frank. 

“ 0, your conscience don't trouble you, then,” an¬ 
grily exclaimed the officer, who did not understand 
Frank’s fine language. “ Well, your back will 
trouble you in less than a minute if you use any 
jaw to me.” 

“ I meant, sir, that I didn’t know I had done any¬ 
thing wrong,” exclaimed Frank. 

“ Then why didn’t you say so ?” growled the mate. 
“ You’re a nice lad, I do think, to come aboard here 
with your smooth, oily tongue, and talk us all into 
believing that you are a landsman ! You told me 
that you didn’t know anything about a ship.” 

“ Yes, sir, and I told you the truth. I have had 
time to learn something since then.” 


164 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“So have I,” said the mate. “Now listen to 
me, my hearty,” he added, shaking his finger at 
Trank. “ You can’t soldier any longer. You’ll stand 
your trick at the wheel and do an able seaman’s 
duty from this hour, or I’ll haze you till you’ll be 
glad to jump overboard. Go forward, where you 
belong.” 

“Ay, ay, sir ! Now I have got myself into a 
scrape, sure enough,” thought Frank. “ The very 
first time I receive an order I don’t understand, I 
shall catch it. I wdsh I had let that royal alone.” 

Frank went forward and shortly afterward the 
first mate followed him, holding in his hand two short 
pieces of rope. “Gentleman Black,” said he, “I 
need something to larrup these fellows with, when 
they don’t act like men, and I want you to put a 
long splice in these ropes and a Turk’s head at each 
end.” 

“Ay, ay, sir!” answered Frank. “You can’t 
catch me in this way, my man,” he added, as the 
mate went aft again. “ If it should ever become 
necessary to send down the topmasts, you will find 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


165 


out just how much I know about a sailor’s work. I 
expect I shall be the first one to be 4 larruped’ with 
this when it is done.” 

Frank knew that such a rope as that he was at 
work upon, could not be used anywhere about the 
ship, unless it was for the purpose of beating the 
men. The mate gave him the task merely to try 
him; and he stationed himself, too, where he could 
■watch Frank in order to make sure that he did the 
work himself. If he had been unable to do it, the 
officer would have accused him of soldiering, and 
that would have furnished him with an excuse for 
punishing Frank in some way. But he missed his 
object that time. The work was neatly and quickly 
performed, and Frank carried it to the mate, who, 
after closely examining it, grasped it with both hands 
and raised it in the air. 44 Let me see how it will 
answer the purpose for which it is intended,” said 
he. 

If Frank had flinched or dodged, it is probable 
that he would have felt the weight of the rope over 
his shoulders ; and it is probable, too, that the mate 


166 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


would have been flat on his back the very next im 
stant. The deck of the Tycoon was never so near 
being the scene of a mutiny as it was that day; and 
just so surely as the rope fell, just so surely would 
there have been trouble, and serious trouble, too— 
Frank did not know how serious until afterward. 
He little dreamed that he had eight good men to 
back him up. He thought he would have to depend 
entirely on himself, but he stood his ground as if he 
had had the whole crew of his old vessel, the Boxer, 
at his command. 

The mate eyed him savagely for a moment, and 
then lowering the rope and telling Frank that he 
thought he was a very nice lad to come soldiering 
aboard there, when he was as able to do seaman’s 
duty as anybody, called him some hard name and or¬ 
dered him to go forward. The young sailor obeyed, 
glad indeed to be let off so easily ; but his heart 
beat rapidly for a long time after that, and now and 
then he cast toward the officer a glance that was 
full of meaning. 

That night all sail was made again, and while 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


167 


Frank was at work on the topsail yard, Lucas, who 
was busy at his side, poked him with his elbow and 
whispered hurriedly— 

“ Why didn’t you knock him down, cap’n ?” 

“Be careful,” whispered Frank, in reply. 

“No harm done, sir,” answered the boatswain’s 
mate. “ There’s nobody near us except good men 
and true, and I’d as soon they would hear me as not. 
Why didn’t you knock that mate down when he 
raised the rope on you ?” 

“I had no reason for doing it,” replied Frank; 
“ but I believe I should have tried it if he had struck 
me. I don’t think I could take a blow without re¬ 
senting it. I came pretty near going in the brig 
that time.” 

“ No, you didn’t, not by a long sight, sir, begging 
your pardon for speaking so plainly,” said the old 
sailor, with a knowing shake of his head. “ If 
you’d a done it, you’d a been walking up and down 
the quarter-deck now with your thumbs in the arm¬ 
holes of your vest. You’d a been master of the 
Tycoon, sir!” 


168 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Frank looked at Lucas in amazement. 

“Fact, sir,” said the old boatswain’s mate, earn¬ 
estly. “Me and Barton got you into this scrape, 
all unbeknown to us who did it, and we’re bound to 
bring you out with flying colors, I tell you !” 

“Look here, Lucas,” said Frank. “Now don’t 

you or anybody else attempt-” 

“ Belay what I have told you and listen to more,” 
interrupted the sailor, hastily; “ and don’t be break¬ 
ing in on me in that way, if you please, sir, because 
we hadn’t got much time to talk. You’ll never be 
struck, sir, I don’t think, but if you are, you’ll see 
a tidy row. The officers know who you are—me 
and Barton told it to the other fellows in Calamity’s 
hearing, and he carried it back to the cabin, as we 
knew he would—and the cap’n would give all his 
old boots and throw in a pair of new ones into the 
bargain, if he was well rid of you. He don’t want 
you here ; you know too much.” 

“Well, he can easily be rid of me and you and 
Barton, too,” said Frank. “Let him put us 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


169 


ashore at the Sandwich Islands. We are willing 
to go.” 

“ He’ll never do that, sir. You wouldn’t go 
ashore with a stopper on your jaw, would you ?” 

“No, I would not,” replied Frank, emphatically. 
“ I’d tell the consul all I know about this ship and 
the way men are treated here, and have the captain 
and all his officers, except Mr. Gale, arrested. I 
could not be hired to keep my mouth shut.” 

“ Ah, ha ! I thought so. The cap’n knows it, 
too.” 

“ What is he going to do with us?” 

“None of us know. The men don’t want you to 
leave if they’ve got to stay, because they say that 
things ain’t half as bad as they were before you 
came aboard. We know what we’re going to do, 
and I’ve been waiting for a good chance to tell you. 
We’re going to take the ship out of the hands of 
these villains, and put you in command. Hold on 
a bit, sir,” he added, seeing that Frank was about 
to speak; “ I know just what I am saying, and it is 
too late to find fault, for everything is fixed. Me 


170 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


and Barton spoke to some of the men about it, and 
there’s six good men besides us that you can depend 
on every time. We know that you’ve got the 
brains and the book-learning to see us safe through 
the consul’s court, and we’ll do just whatever you 
say, all except one thing : when we get the ship, 
Calamity and the first mate have got to go overboard. 
That we’ve struck hands on. Lay in from the yard 
now, sir. Keep a stiff upper lip, and don’t take no 
slack from nobody. When you get a good ready, 
sing out; and while me and Barton makes a dash 
for the cap’n’s pistols—Calamity told us where he 
keeps ’em—the other six will take care of the 
officers on deck. We’ve got everything fixed, as I 
told you, and we’re just aching to begin the work.” 

The old boatswain’s mate followed his remarks 
with sundry winks, nods and contortions of his face 
which Frank could not understand, but which no 
doubt meant a good deal. 

Frank descended to the deck and went through 
the rest of his duties like one in a dream. He had 
told his friends on board the Stranger that, had he 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


1T1 


been in tbe deserter’s place, he would not have been 
restrained, by any fear of falling into the clutches 
of the law, from joining with his companions and 
taking the vessel out of the control of her officers. 
Now he was placed in a similar situation, and had 
only to “ sing out” to make himself monarch of all 
he surveyed. Eight sturdy, determined men stood 
ready to obey his orders—a sufficient number to 
overpower the captain and his two tyrannical mates 
before they could think twice. Lucas did not have 
time to tell him who his friends were, but Frank 
believed that he could pick them all out. He had 
wondered at the respect which the foremast hands 
had shown him ever since his advent among them, 
and rightly attributed it to the influence of Lucas 
and Barton. Frank wondered if the third mate, 
Mr. Gale, was one of them. That officer always 
treated him with the utmost consideration, and once, 
while he was serving Frank with some clothing from 
the slop-chest, he so far forgot himself as to address 
him as “sir.” He noticed the mistake as soon as 
he made it, but he did not recall the word. The 


172 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


old boatswain’s mate and coxswain were indeed re¬ 
solved to bring him out of bis troubles with flying 
colors. They meant to promote him rapidly. Did 
anybody ever hear of a person creeping in at the 
hawsehole, and working his way into the captain’s 
berth in three weeks? Drank laughed at the idea. 

“I’m a nice specimen to be put in command of 
a ship,” he thought. “ I hardly know the topsail 
halliards from the jib downhaul. But I feel better 
than I did an hour ago. If my presence here really 
acts as a restraint upon the captain, I am glad of it. 
As long as that state of affairs continues he and his 
officers are secure in their positions; but now that 
I have the power to prevent it, no one shall be 
triced up by the wrists with a fifty-pound weight at 
his feet, or beaten as unmercifully as that man was 
beaten the other day.” 

Frank carried a light heart from that day for¬ 
ward, and often wondered, when he saw the captain 
in one of his angry, swearing moods, what that gen¬ 
tleman would think if he knew that he was treading 
on a mine that was liable to be exploded at any mo- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


178 


ment. He did not have a chance to talk to Lucas 
again, hut the sailor looked whole volumes at him 
every time they met, and Frank thought the old 
fellow meant to reproach him because he did not 
“ sing out.” 

Frank by this time began to feel and look like a 
sailor. He had discarded his black suit and drawn 
a full seaman’s rig from the slop-chest—red shirts, 
coarse trowsers, woollen stockings, heavy boots and 
tarpaulin. His hands were becoming hardened, so 
that he could haul on the ropes or take a three 
hours’ pull about the ship, without setting his palms 
on fire as he had done at first. There was one thing 
he could not bring himself to do, and that was to 
go barefooted, like the rest of the crew. There was 
something too slovenly about that to suit Frank, 
who, during his experience on ship-board, had 
always been accustomed to see men neatly and com¬ 
pletely dressed. 

Although Captain Barclay was in a great hurry, 
he did not neglect to keep himself and crew in 
readiness to seize upon the first opportunity that 


174 the sportsman’s club 

was presented for adding to his stock of oil in the 
hold. The boats were always ready for lowering, 
the mast-head had been manned for two weeks; 
and Frank took his turn with the rest. He did his 
duty faithfully while acting as lookout, hoping to 
be the first to discover a whale. He wanted to see 
one; but when it came to getting into a small boat 
and pulling out to attack him—well, Frank wasn’t 
so anxious for that. He drew a long breath and 
his heart would beat a little faster than usual when¬ 
ever he thought of it. He had heard many thrill¬ 
ing stories related during the night-watches, and 
had come to the conclusion that a sperm whale was 
made to be looked at from a distance and not to be 
approached in a small boat. 

One bright day Frank was sitting on the fore¬ 
royal yard, his back braced against the shroud-stay, 
one hand grasping the halliards and his feet swinging 
in the air a hundred feet above the deck. There 
was not a sail in sight—nothing but the ocean be¬ 
neath and the blue sky above. The old boatswain’s 
mate, who now held the position of boat-steerer, was 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


175 


sitting on the main-royal yard behind him, and both 
were keeping a bright lookout for whales. A prize 
of a pair of boots had been offered to the first man 
who raised a whale, and that to a sailor who, out of 
small wages, has to pay high prices for everything 
he draws from the slop-chest, is an object worth 
working for. Frank did not care for the boots— 
he hoped to be safely off the Tycoon long before the 
pair he then had on was worn out—but he did care 
for the honor of discovering the first spout, so he 
kept his eyes roaming everywhere. But half his 
watch had expired and he had seen nothing yet. 

“ Hem! hem!” said a voice behind and above 
him. 

Frank looked around, and saw the old boatswain’s 
mate winking and nodding at him as he always did 
both before and after making any confidential com¬ 
munication. More than that, he was holding his 
clenched hand against his breast, and pointing with 
his thumb out over the water. His meaning flashed 
upon Frank in an instant. His eyes scanned almost 
every inch of the watery waste that lay between him 


176 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


and the horizon, but he could see nothing that he 
thought looked as a spout ought to look. 

“ Sing out, sir!” whispered the old sailor, ex¬ 
citedly. u There’s grease!” 

“I don’t see it,” whispered Frank, in reply. 

“ What’s the odds? I do. Sing out, sir !” 

“ There she blows!” shouted Frank, taking the 
old sea-dog at his word. 

The flapping of the sails below him showed that 
his wild yell had reached the ears of at least one 
of the sailors on deck—the wheelsman—and that it 
had excited him so that he forgot for a moment to 
attend to his business. Then the captain’s hoarse 
voice was heard. “ Keep her steady there, can’t 
you ? Where away ?” 

“ I am sure I don’t know,” said Frank, in a low 
tone, as he looked impatiently around. 

“ Three points off* the weather bow !” shouted the 
boatswain’s mate. “ Three miles off and coming 
this way. Sperm whale. Flukes! flukes!” he 
added, as the whale went down with a farewell 
flourish of his tail. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


177 


“ Dear me, I wish I could see it,” thought 
Frank. 

“ Lay down from aloft!” commanded the cap¬ 
tain. “ See the boats all clear and stand by to 
lower.” 

When Frank descended to the deck in obedience 
to this order, he found the captain and all his mates 
in the rigging, the former sweeping the horizon 
with his glass. “ There she blows !” he cried, glee¬ 
fully. “ Close aboard ! Back the main topsail and 
lower away!” 

Frank sprang to the falls of the boat to which he 
belonged, and by the time it was fairly settled in 
the water, he was in his seat with his oar in his 
hand. Much scrambling and confusion followed; 
but a few oaths from the captain restored order, 
and almost before he knew it Frank was flying 
over the waves in pursuit of his first whale—the 
whale he had raised, but which he had not yet 
seen. 


12 


1T8 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


CHAPTER X. 


FRANK’S FIRST WHALE, 


LL this happened in much less time than we 



have taken to describe it. To Frank, whose 
brain was in a great whirl, it seemed that scarcely 
half a minute had elapsed after the raising of the 
whale, before he was in the boat and pulling for 
dear life. He afterwards recalled every exciting 
incident of that hour, and wondered that he did not 
feel any fear. Perhaps it was because he was too 
busy to think. He was not so busy, however, but 
that he could take note of and marvel at one thing, 
and that was the great change that had suddenly 
come over the captain. He looked and acted like 
a different man. He even smiled, and that was 
something Frank had never seen him do before. 
Holding the steering-oar with one hand and assist- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


179 


ing the stroke-oar with the other, he kept up a run¬ 
ning fire of small-talk to encourage his men. 

“Now, my good sons/’ said he, in a low voice and 
in much such a tone as an affectionate father might 
use, “ all my ‘ lay’ in that whale will go straight to 
your credit just as soon as we get back to the ship, 
if you will only put me alongside of him so that I 
can get one chance at him with the lance. I de¬ 
clare, it has been so long since I used a lance that 
I don’t know how it seems, and I shall get all out 
of practice if you don’t take pity on me. We must 
beat that other boat anyhow, and if you pull this 
way, you are sure to do it. That’s it; pick her 
right up out of the water and walk along with her. 
She isn’t a feather’s weight to such long-armed, 
broad-shouldered fellows as you are. That’s the 
way to do it; only raise her just an inch higher, my 
lads. She touched that wave; I felt it, didn’t you ? 
There! she didn’t touch that one and I know it. 
Keep her there, my good lads. She’s in the air 
now. Talk about your balloons ! Give me this 
boat and crew and I’ll go anywhere they can !” 


180 


THE SPORTSMAN S CLUB 


For the first time since he came on board the 
Tycoon, Frank felt like laughing. The captain 
reminded him of Hans Breitman’s velocipede, which, 
even before it became frightened and started to run 
away with its rider, went so fast that it 

“-didn’t touch the dirt, py shinks, 

Not once in half a mile.” 


“ Bless me, what muscles those two fellows in the 
how have got!” continued the captain, still working 
at the stroke-oar with all his strength. “ And how 
they do twist them oars about, just as if they were 
feathers ! I’ve got to have stronger and heavier 
oars made for them, I can see that, for they’re 
bound to break them they’ve got now. Ah ! she 
touched that wave. Lift her up in the air again, 
where she belongs, and hold her there. You fellows 
in the bow needn’t think you can pull your end of 
the boat so fast that we in the stern can’t keep up 
with you. By the way, is that sharp-eyed, good- 
looking son of mine, who raised this whale, in the 
boat ?” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


181 


“Yes, sir. It was Nelson,” replied Lucas, 
promptly. 

Frank, who did not believe in sailing under false 
colors, was about to protest that it wasn’t he at all 
—that Lucas himself was the lucky man—but 
knowing the captain’s uncertain disposition, and 
fearing that there might be some after-settlement 
that would prove unpleasant for the old boatswain’s 
mate if the truth were known, he kept silent and 
heard himself praised for an act that he did not per¬ 
form. 

“ Ah ! it is just like him,” said the captain. “ I 
knew there was lots in him the first time I saw him. 
You can’t fool me in a man. I can look in his eye 
and read him like an open book. There’s a boat- 
steerer’s berth ahead for you, Nelson,” continued the 
captain, too excited and impatient to think of the 
name he always applied to Frank in derision. 
“ Those boots belong to you, and when we get back 
to the ship you go straight down to the slop-chest 
—I’ll give you the key—and pick out whatever you 
want. Take everything you find there—boots, 


182 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


breeches, shirts and—no, no ! Take the ship. She’s 
yours! That’s the way Daddy Barclay treats his 
eons when they do their duty by him. Now, my 
lads,” he added, in a thrilling whisper, “he’s right 
here somewhere below us. Lay on your oars now; 
keep your eyes peeled and don’t let me hear so much 
as an eye-wink from any of you.” 

Frank’s heart fairly came up into his mouth. 
The captain’s harangue being ended (he had a sus¬ 
picion that the skipper had kept it up on purpose 
to divert the minds of his crew, one of whom was 
as green as Frank himself), there was nothing to 
occupy his attention, and he had leisure to ponder 
upon the dangers he was about to encounter. Of 
course all the stories he had heard in the Tycoon’s 
forecastle concerning the perils to which whalemen 
are constantly exposed, came into his mind, and to 
save his life he could think of nothing else. He 
felt as he had often felt on going into action. 
After the crew are called to quarters there is almost 
always a delay, sometimes longer and sometimes 
shorter, before the first gun is fired, and to most men 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


183 


that is worse than the battle itself. They are glad 
when it is over and the fight begins. The interval 
of inactivity that came now gave the boat’s crew a 
chance to rest after their long, hard pull, but Frank 
could scarcely endure it. He wanted the whale to 
show himself at once. If he was going to cut the 
boat in two with his jaw or smash it i..*o kindling 
wood with his tail, Frank wished he would be about 
it and not keep him in suspense. 

The whale was down a long time—so long that 
even the captain became impatient. He and the 
boat’s crew, Frank among the rest, arose to their 
feet one after the other to obtain a wider view, an d 
holding their oars in their hands, kept a bright 
lookout in every direction. The first mate’s boat 
was lying about half a mile to windward, and her 
crew were also standing up. The Tycoon had come 
to directly in the path the whale was pursuing, and 
the third officer was at the mast-head, ready to 
signal to the boat’s crews if the whale arose beyond 
the range of their vision. Frank’s eyes were every¬ 
where, and at last something induced him to turn 


184 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


them into the water close alongside the boat. He 
saw something there—an immense dark-blue object, 
which contrasted plainly with the paler blue of the 
water. He looked again, and then glanced into the 
water on the opposite side of the boat to make sure 
that his eyes had not deceived him. The sea on 
that side was all the same color, and that proved 
that there was something under the boat. He 
nudged Lucas with his elbow and pointed to it. 
The old sailor looked, and instantly every particle 
of color fled from his face. But he had nerve, if he 
was frightened, plenty of it, too, and it showed 
itself in the firm grasp he laid upon his harpoon. 
The time for action had arrived. 

“ He’s coming,” thought Frank, while the oar he 
held in his grasp seemed to turn into lead, so heavy 
did it feel to his weakened arm. “ I always sup¬ 
posed a whale was black.” 

The boat header’s action attracted the attention 
of the captain, who, following the direction of his 
gaze gave a sudden start and waved his hand to the 
crew. The men quickly seated themselves and 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


185 


dropped their oars softly in the row-locks. The 
temptation to look over his shoulder was almost 
irresistible, but fearing that if he did, his courage, 
'which was rapidly oozing out at the ends of his fin¬ 
gers, would give away altogether, Frank resolutely 
controlled himself and kept his eyes fixed on the 
captain’s face. 

“ There he is,” cried the skipper, a moment after¬ 
ward. “ Throw it at him and go overboard if you 
miss him.” 

The old sailor obeyed the order to the very letter. 
He threw his harpoon, missed his object and went 
overboard. Whether it was for the reason that the 
boat was unsteady, or because the seaman was too 
badly frightened to stand firmly on his feet, or be¬ 
cause his hand had lost its skill during the years that 
had passed since he struck his last whale, it is hard 
to tell. Perhaps all these things combined operated 
to bring about' the events that followed. At any 
rate the iron went wild and the old boatswain’s mate 
turned a complete back somersault and disappeared 
over the side. He rose immediately, however, and 


186 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Frank catching sight of him as a wave carried him 
past the boat, promptly thrust his oar out to him. 

The captain was almost beside himself with fury. 
He did not act or talk quite so much like an 
affectionate father as he did a short time before. 
He tore off his hat, trampled it under his feet and 
shook all over with rage. “ He missed him as sure 
as I’m a sinner,” he sputtered, hardly able to speak 
plainly. “ If I had him aboard the ship I would 
trice him up for a week. Let the fool go,” he 
roared with a long string of heavy adjectives, as 
Frank tried to place the blade of his oar in the old 
sailor’s grasp. “ A man that’ll get up on his legs 
and tumble overboard while the boat is standing 
still, is of no use aboard a vessel of mine; so let him 
go down among the sharks, where he belongs. 
We’re well rid of—Stern all! Stern for your lives ! 
Well done, my son. You’ve been in this business 
before, and you are my boat-header from this day 
out.” 

The change in the captain’s tone was brought 
about by an action on Frank’s part that was unex- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


18T 


pected, even to himself. He scarcely knew he did 
it until after it was done. Lucas, having missed 
his first throw and gone overboard, had no chance 
for a second attempt, and unless somebody took his 
place on the instant, the game was likely, if he did 
not escape altogether, to lead them a long, hard 
race before they could come up with him again. It 
required an emergency to show what Frank was 
made of. He never waited to take a second 
thought, but throwing his oar to the boatswain’s 
mate—he knew it would keep him afloat until the 
boat could pick him up—he jumped to his feet, 
catching up the extra harpoon as he arose. 

When his face was turned toward the bow of the 
boat, Frank saw a sight that was well calculated to 
shake stronger nerves than his—a sperm whale 
coming up on a breach almost within an oar’s 
length of him. His huge hulk was shooting up 
into the air, and he did not even make a ripple in 
the water as he arose. But when he fell on his 
side, as he did a moment later, he created some¬ 
thing more than a ripple. He raised waves that 


188 THE sportsman’s club 

threatened to swamp the boat, and made a noise 
that would have given Frank some idea of the im¬ 
mense weight of the monster, if he had not been 
too highly excited and alarmed to have any ideas at 

all. 

As the whale fell into the water—fortunately he 
fell away from the boat—Frank’s harpoon was 
launched into the air, and being thrown with all the 
force his sinewy arms could give it, and flying true 
to its aim, was buried to the socket in the side of 
the whale. The next instant the young harpooner 
was thrown flat among the thwarts by the sudden 
start backward which the crew gave the boat in 
obedience to the captain’s order “ Stern all!” He 
heard something whistling through the air, and 
looked up just in time to see the whale’s flukes dis¬ 
appearing in a pile of foam. How he opened his 
eyes at the sight of them ! They w r ould have mea¬ 
sured more feet across than the boat measured in 
length. The whale gave the water an angry slap, 
raising a sea that would have filled the boat had not 
the bow been promptly brought around toward it, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


189 


and then started down into the depths at the rate 
of a mile in six minutes, the line fairly smoking as 
it whizzed through the lead-lined groove. Frank 
held his breath while he gazed at it. It looked like 
a streak of blue flame, so swiftly did it run out. If 
it caught on anything, the boat and all her crew 
would be a hundred feet under water in an instant’s 
time. 

The young harpooner did not hear any of the 
words of praise and promises of reward which the 
delighted skipper shouted at him. He did not hear 
anything but the hissing of the line as it ran through 
the groove in the bow. He lay on the bottom per¬ 
fectly stupefied, until he was aroused by the touch 
of somebody’s hand. 

When the captain gave the order to “ Stern all,” 
the crew sent the boat within reach of Lucas, who 
laid hold of the gunwale, and worked his way along 
to the bow, where he belonged. Attracting Frank’s 
attention by a pull at his trowsers, he was hauled 
into the boat, and took his seat, looking not a little 
crestfallen. He caught up a hatchet lying near, and 


190 


THE sportsman’s club 


held it in his hand in readiness to cut the line in case 
it fouled while running out. Frank also seated him¬ 
self, and then began to think about what he had done. 
No one in the boat could have been more surprised 
at it. 

“I don’t want any more of this,” said he, men¬ 
tally. “ It is just awful. I can’t stand it. While 
that fellow was shooting up toward the clouds he 
looked like a church-steeple turned w r rong end up. 
He must be a hundred and fifty feet long—perhaps 
more. Who would have thought that I had courage 
enough to send that harpoon at him?” 

Here Frank looked over his shoulder as if to sat¬ 
isfy himself that he had really performed the feat. 
There could be no mistake about it. The line was 
still running out, and Lucas was watching it while 
hauling in the harpoon with which he had missed 
the whale. 

“ I believe I did do it,” thought Frank. “ He is 
black after all. It was the water that made him 
look so blue. I wouldn’t do it again to be made 
owner of the finest fleet of ships that ever floated !” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


191 


“ Nelson,” said the captain, and now that Frank’s 
mind w'as settled a little he was able to pay atten¬ 
tion to him, “ whatever I’ve got that you want, just 
ask for it and it is yours. Don’t be bashful or stand 
on ceremony with your Daddy Barclay. Take a big 
bite if you want to.” 

“ I have only one favor to ask, captain,” replied 
Frank, suddenly tempted to strike while the iron 
was hot, although he knew it would be quite use¬ 
less, “and that is-” 

“ Well, slack away lively, and let it come out on 
the run,” said the captain, as Frank hesitated a 
moment, wondering how he could word the request 
so that the skipper would not get angry at him. 
“ Speak it out.” 

“ I should be greatly obliged if you would set me 
and the two men who were shanghaied with me, 
ashore at the first port we make,” said Frank. 
“We shall use the right the law gives us, and ask 
to see the consul as soon as we get there.” 

Frank’s only motive in saying this was to let the 
captain know that he understood the law applying 



192 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


to the rights of seamen; and he said it at that time 
because he did not know that he would ever have 
another chance, this being the first opportunity he 
had ever had to exchange a word with the master 
of the Tycoon. If there is anything an officer thor¬ 
oughly detests it is a u sea lawyer” among his crew. 
One of these gentry will keep a ship’s company in 
hot water from the time the voyage begins until it 
is ended; and his presence acts as a restraint upon 
the captain and his mates, who, if they are disposed 
to be tyrannical, expect to escape the consequences 
through the sailor’s ignorance of their rights. 
Frank knew this, and he was in hopes that if he let 
the captain see that he knew what his privileges 
were, and that he intended to insist on having them, 
the skipper would be glad to get rid of him with as 
little delay as possible. 

The master of the Tycoon had not a word to say 
in reply to this request, but the look he gave Frank 
satisfied the latter that if he had not spoken at the 
right time to further his own interests, he had 
spoken at the right time to make the captain angry. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


193 


He did not offer Frank any more rewards after 
that. 

The line continued to run out with great rapidity 
for a few minutes, then the speed gradually de¬ 
creased until it remained motionless, and the actions 
of the captain and his crew indicated that the whale 
was soon expected to make his appearance at the 
surface again. He came very speedily, and much 
too close to the boat for the comfort and safety of its 
crew. Seen through Frank’s frightened eyes, his 
head looked like a small mountain rising out of the 
water. His mouth was wide open, showing a milk- 
white cavity large enough to take in the boat and 
all its crew, and Frank gathered from something 
Lucas said that he was ugly and had made up his 
mind to do some mischief. The sequel proved that 
the old sailor was right. The monster began opera¬ 
tions at once by striking out with his long, sword¬ 
like jaw, which to Frank’s great amazement he 
worked sideways, instead of up and down, and fol¬ 
lowed it up with a tremendous sweep of his tail that, 

had he succeeded in planting the blow where he 

18 


194 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


wanted it, would have made an end of his enemies 
in a hurry. But both these dangers were escaped. 
His jaw just touched the how of the boat, and the 
blow from his flukes was avoided by the vigilance 
of the captain and the prompt obedience of the 
crew, who quickly backed the boat out of his reach. 
Apparently satisfied with the demonstrations he had 
made, the whale got under way and made off* at an 
astonishing rate of speed, the harpoon which Frank 
had planted still fast in his side. 

The bow-oarsman now had a duty to perform, and 
he set about it without waiting for orders. It was 
to overhaul the line and draw the boat up alongside 
the whale, so that the captain, who stood ready to 
change places with the harpooner, could use his 
lance. He rapidly drew in the line, taking care to 
lay it down clear of everything, so that it would not 
kink or get foul in case the whale sounded again, 
and soon had the slack all in. Then he felt a 
strain upon it, and an instant afterward the line 
was whipped out of the water with such force that 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


195 


it was drawn as tight as a bow-string, and the spray 
flew from it in a perfect shower. 

“ Hold fast to it, my son,” yelled the captain. 
u Keep every inch you get, and get every inch you 
can. We’ll have a sleigh-ride now, and such a one 
as landsmen know nothing about.” 

For a moment the strain was fearful, and Frank’s 
power of muscle was tested to the utmost. It 
seemed to him that if the harpoon did not draw or 
the line break, his arms would be pulled off. Let¬ 
ting go was something he did not think of; but he 
knew he could not retain his hold much longer, so 
in spite of the old mate’s warning gestures, he 
passed a bight of the line around a thwart and held 
it there. By this time the boat began to move, and 
the strain was somewhat lessened. 

Now began a novel ride, wFich Frank thought he 
could have enjoyed if he had only had leisure to give 
his attention to it. A whale can move at tremend¬ 
ous speed for a short distance, and this one went at 
such a rate that the boat buried her bow in the 
waves, and rolled back great masses of foam, which, 


196 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


spreading out over the surface of the water, gave it 
the appearance of a hank of snow. Perhaps it was 
this that first caused the sailors to call a ride of this 
kind a sleigh-ride. But Frank had no time to see 
what was going on around him. He had work to 
perform; and it was work to haul a heavy boat 
containing six men through the waves against such 
resistance as the whale created by the high rate of 
speed he kept up. The line was wet and slippery, 
and Frank’s hands, which he had fondly hoped were 
pretty well hardened by this time, soon began to 
feel the effects of it. 

In the first lesson he received while manoeuvring 
about the “dummy whale,” Frank had been in¬ 
structed how to adjust the line to make the boat 
move side by side with a running whale and at a 
short distance from it, and he struggled hard to 
bring the boat in that position; but the line came 
in very slowly, and sometimes when he was almost 
on the point of accomplishing his object, an un¬ 
usually large wave striking the bow or a sudden 
spurt on the part of the frantic beast in front, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 197 

would tear the line from his hands in spite of all 
he could do to prevent it. 

At length, after Frank had worked his best for 
nearly an hour without once pausing for breath, 
and the line had been drawn through his hands for 
the third time, the captain’s small stock of patience 
was all exhausted, and he began to relieve his mind 
by uttering heavy oaths. “ Coward !” he yelled, 
stamping his feet as if he were trying to knock a 
hole through the bottom of the boat. “ If you are 
afraid to put me alongside that whale, jump over¬ 
board and give place to a better man. You’re fix¬ 
ing your back for a rope’s end as soon as you get 
aboard the ship!” 

Frank and the old boatswain’s mate exchanged 
quick glances, one elevating his eye-brows, and the 
other drawing his down. The first meant: “ If 
he tries it will you sing out ?” and Frank by his 
answering scowl meant: “I will.” Not a word 
was passed, but each understood the other per¬ 
fectly. 


198 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


CHAPTER XI. 

CUTTING IN AND TRYING OUT. 

fjpHE high-spirited Frank, smarting under a sense 
of injustice, and hardly able to hear the pain 
occasioned by his lacerated hands, suddenly became 
very reckless. The captain had no excuse for talk¬ 
ing to him in that style after what he had done. A 
coward would not have been likely to take a defeated 
harpooner’s place and plunge an iron into the first 
whale he had ever seen, and neither would he have 
worked as hard as Frank did to bring the boat into 
position; and that he did work, the crimson stains 
his hands left on the rope abundantly proved. 

“I have had this boat alongside that whale three 
times,” said Frank, to himself, “and if I get her 
there again she’ll stay, unless something breaks. I’ll 
make all fast; and if the whale goes down and takes 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


199 


us to the bottom with him, it can’t he helped. I’ll 
see who will be the first to act like a coward, the 
captain or I.” 

Had Frank carried this reckless resolve into exe¬ 
cution, and had the whale sounded as soon as the 
line was made fast, the boat would not have been 
emptied of her crew more quickly than she was a 
moment later. The whale threw his flukes about 
in the most spiteful manner, but finding that he 
could not reach the boat with them, he gave signs 
of a change of tactics which created a panic among 
all the crew except Frank and the old boatswain’s 
mate. Frank was not frightened because he did 
not understand them—in his case ignorance was 
bliss—but the sailor did, and he did not turn white 
this time either. He was about to be given an op¬ 
portunity to make amends for his previous defeat, 
and he was ready to improve it. 

“ He’s going to 1 mill,’ ” said he in a low tone 
as he picked up his harpoon. “ Don’t slack an 
inch till I get a dart at him.” 

Before Frank could ask an explanation the whale 


200 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


raised his huge head from the water, dropped his 
jaw at right angles with his body and turning as 
quickly as a flash, started off* across the course he 
had been pursuing. Frank, who was sitting with 
face forward so that he had a fair view of the whale 
and could see every move he made, stared at him in 
amazement; and while awaiting the issue of events 
with a calmness that surprised himself, eagerly re¬ 
sponded to the harpooner’s entreaty to haul in 
faster, although he believed that certain death 
awaited him. It seemed as if the boat would run 
squarely into the whale’s mouth. 

“ Slack that line!” roared the captain, suddenly 
stopping his swearing and speaking in an imploring 
tone of voice. “ Slack that line, and may Heaven 
have mercy .on us ! Stern all, for life !” 

Frank dropped the line, which seemed like a coal 
of fire in his hands, void the men laid out their 
strength on the oars till they fairly snapped. The 
first stroke stopped the boat’s headway and the 
second started her on the back track, but not in 
time to escape the danger that threatened her. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


203 


water long enough to say it. He ducked his head 
and went down like lead, making desperate struggles 
to go faster. Frank cast one frightened glance over 
his shoulder and went down too. The whale had 
turned again and was coming directly toward him, 
rolling from side to side and slashing from right to 
left with his jaw, describing at each stroke a circle 
thirty-two feet in diameter. There was no time to 
swim out of his reach. His only chance for life 
was to go below him. How Frank blessed his 
lucky stars at that moment that deep diving and 
swimming long distances under water were two of 
his accomplishments ! He went as far down as he 
could, stayed under as long as he could hold his 
breath, and came up almost strangled. He was out 
of danger. The battered boat was twenty feet away 
and the whale a hundred feet still farther off, and 
moving rapidly toward the ship. The men were all 
clinging to the boat to keep themselves afloat, and 
Frank swam up and joined them. 

All this while the men in the mate’s boat had 
been doing their best with sail and oars to get near 


204 THE sportsman’s club 

enough to the whale to take part in the fight, but 
without success. Now, however, they had an op¬ 
portunity offered them, for the whale had doubled 
on his course, and if he did not take it into his head 
to turn again, he would pass their boat at such a 
distance that they would have a chance at him with 
their harpoons. The mate prepared for it by order¬ 
ing one man to take down the sail while the rest 
still tugged at the oars. He did not even look 
toward the disabled boat or ask if the crew wanted 
assistance. 

“ These whalemen are a heartless lot,” thought 
Frank. “ If I were in command of that boat I 
think I should save my shipmates first; but I sup¬ 
pose that officer thinks we are not worth as much 
as the whale. Men can be had any day for the 
asking, and if a few of them lose their lives 
what’s the odds? Nobody misses them. But 
whales are not as plenty as they used to be, and if 
one of them is lost it is something to be sorry 
for.” 

Frank’s meditations were interrupted and his 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


205 


attention called from the chase by the actions of 
one the men near him, who suddenly began to make 
desperate efforts to climb into the boat. He per¬ 
sisted in spite of the angry orders and oaths of the 
skipper, who stormed and threatened to no purpose. 
The man was almost beside himself with fear. 

“ What has come over him all at once?” asked 
Frank, of the man at his side. “ He was quiet 
enough a moment ago.” 

“ He had a narrow escape from a shark once,” 
replied the sailor, “ and I guess he has just thought 
of it.” 

“Well, I wish from the bottom of my heart that 
he hadn’t thought of it at all,” said Frank, “ or 
else that I had not asked you any questions, for I 
have new cause for alarm now. I wonder if a sailor 
can turn in any direction without finding himself 
confronted by some deadly peril?” 

“ He might if he’s a merchantman, but not if he 
is a whaler,” was the comforting reply. 

“ If I had thought of sharks I never could have 
dived under that whale,” continued Frank. 


206 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ 0, ’tain’t time for ’em to be on hand yet; but 
you’ll see ’em coming like a flock of sheep just as 
soon as that fellow begins to spout blood.” 

“ Ay, that you will,” said another. “ I was 
hanging on to a stove boat once, just as we are 
now, and the sharks, I never see the beat of ’em in 

all my born days, come up-” 

“Well, if they got hold of anybody, I don’t 
want to know it,” interrupted Frank, with a 
shudder. “Can’t you talk about something else?” 

“ Take that!” shouted the captain, who was 
narrowly watching the chase. “ And that!” he 
added, a moment afterward. “ He’s fast again, and 
we are sixty barrels of grease ahead.” 

Frank looked up to see what had called forth 
these exclamations from the captain, and was just 
in time to catch a glimpse of the mate’s harpooner 
as he threw his second iron into the whale. He had 
three harpoons in him now, and Frank gathered 
from the remarks the men made that his capture 
was considered certain. He lashed the water furi¬ 
ously with his tail, raising an immense pile of spray 



AMONG THE WHALERS. 


207 


and foam, and when it disappeared he was out of 
sight. 

“ Now look out for breakers,” said Lucas, “ for 
there’s no knowing where he will come up, and he’s 
ugly if he is little. We know that, don’t we ?” 

“ Little!” repeated Frank, who remembered that 
he had compared the beast to a church-steeple, and 
estimated his length at one hundred and fifty feet; 
“ how big is he ?” 

“ The cap’n says sixty barrels.” 

“ I mean, how long is he?” 

“ 0, I don’t know. I never took the measure of 
one. I ain’t a tailor.” 

“ Did you ever know of one larger than this?” 

“ Many a one. I heard of one once that ran a 
hundred and thirty-five barrels, but I didn’t see 
him. The biggest one I ever struck or saw struck 
turned out a hundred and fifteen barrels.” 

“Almost twice as large as this one,” thought 
Frank, hardly able to believe his ears. “ Whew ! 
I will never sail another foot in the Tycoon after we 
reach the Sandwich Islands. If a youngster can 


208 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


kick up a row like this, what could a full grown 
one do ? What wouldn't he do if he got mad ?” 

Frank was greatly relieved to hear one of the 
men say at that moment that the ship was coming 
down to pick them up. It was anything but pleas¬ 
ant to be placed in such a situation as that in 
which he and his companions were placed just then, 
immersed to their necks in salt water, every wave 
making a clean breach over them, nothing but a 
battered boat to keep them afloat, an enraged and 
ugly whale in close proximity, and a school of 
hungry sharks expected to arrive every moment. 
On the contrary, it was a situation well calculated 
to inspire terror. 

The good ship never seemed to move so slowly 
before, but she came up with them at last, a boat 
pulled by two men came out to their relief, and in 
ten minutes more the wrecked boat was on deck 
in possession of the carpenter, and the exhausted 
men were in the forecastle, exchanging their wet 
clothes for dry ones. When Frank went on deck 
again the whale was in his ki flurry,” which, upon 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


209 


inquiry, he found to be a sailor’s way of saying 
“ death struggle.” The mate and his crew had 
made short work of him, and Frank came up too 
late to see the lance used. The whale was swim¬ 
ming in a circle at a surprising rate of speed, 
pounding the sea with his flukes, spouting blood 
from his blow-hole, and rolling from side to side as 
if trying to reach his enemies with his jaw. His 
fury increased for a few seconds, then gradually 
lessened, and finally the captured monster rolled 
over and lay motionless on the water. “ Fin out!” 
cried all the sailors on the Tycoon, which was 
equivalent to saying, “ he is dead.” Then all joined 
in a yell of triumph, except Frank. He could not 
help feeling sorry for the conquered leviathan, who 
had battled so strongly for his life, and told him¬ 
self that it was a mean business altogether. 

“ Men who can torture a beast like that to death 
and feel no remorse over it, would serve their fel¬ 
low creatures the same way if they had a good 
chance,” was what he said to himself. “ I know 

now how it comes that the captain and his two 

14 


210 


THE SPOKTSMAN’S CLUB 


mates are so brutal. They have practiced on 
whales so long that they have no feeling left.” 

Now came the work of making fast to the whale, 
which was begun as soon as the ship was brought 
alongside of it. Frank did not see how it was done, 
for he was kept busy at something else. When he 
had leisure to look over the side he found the game 
secured by a chain, one end of which was fastened 
just above the tail, and the other led through 
a hawsehole to the bitts. He could see the whole 
length of him now, and had it not been for the 
three harpoons sticking in his back and side, he 
could hardly have brought himself to believe that it 
was the same whale that smashed his boat. He 
looked very much smaller, and the reason was 
because he had something to compare him with. 

And now came the most disagreeable part of a 
whaleman’s duties—the cutting in and trying out. 
The first consists in removing the blubber from 
the body of the whale, cutting off the head and 
bailing out the spermaceti; and the next in render¬ 
ing out the oil in the try-kettles. Lucas said that, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


211 


as the day was far spent, the work ought not to be 
commenced until the next morning. The crew 
could then have a good night’s sleep after their hard 
work in the boats, and be fresh and ready for the 
laborious duties before them; but Captain Barclay 
thought differently He never cared for the com¬ 
fort of his men, so he ordered them to begin at 
once. 

How long it took to do the work Frank never 
knew, for he was too busy and too completely tired 
out to keep track of the days. The crew was so 
small that every man was required to handle the 
blubber as it was hauled aboard by the tackles ; and 
when that was all stowed, and the carcass cut adrift, 
the watches were lengthened into six (they were 
often nearer eight) hours each, and the trying out 
began. Frank did not wonder that the men grew 
quarrelsome, and that more than one of them had 
to be driven to his work with a rope’s end, being 
compelled, as they were, to work almost twenty 
hours out of the twenty-four. He thought often of 
what he had read concerning the fiendish ingenuity 


212 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


displayed by the Chinese in inventing modes of tor¬ 
ture for those who disobey their laws, and told him¬ 
self that some of them must have served their 
time in a whale-ship, and there learned by experi¬ 
ence the misery to which a person is subjected when 
deprived of sleep. Frank would not have resented 
a blow himself now, he was too weak and dispirited; 
but he would have given all he ever hoped to 
possess, if he could have lain down in all the oil 
and dirt of the blubber-room, and had a good sound 
nap. The work was made harder by the captain’s 
great desire to fill up the hold as soon as possible. 
He kept the mast-head manned all day by some of 
the crew who ought to have been allowed to go 
below to rest, and swore at them roundly because 
they did not raise another whale; although it is 
hard to tell what good it would have done if they 
had discovered a school of them, for in their ex¬ 
hausted condition they never could have endured a 
lengthened struggle with one. Frank often thought, 
after it was all over, that the only thing that sus¬ 
tained him during that week, was the sweet, sound 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


213 


sleep he had every time he acted as lookout. Seated 
on the royal yard, a hundred and more feet in the 
air, with his back against the stay and a rope passed 
about his waist to keep him from falling off, he 
would slumber like a log, leaving the whales, if 
there were any, to spout in peace. The rest of 
the crew being equally sleepy and careless, 
no more whales were raised, and Frank was glad 
of it. 

“I can’t stand this, Mr. Gale,” said Frank one 
day, when the third officer came into the blubber- 
room where he was at work, “ and I won’t.” 

“ You won’t ?” 

“ No, sir. I have never done any soldiering 
since I have been aboard here, but I shall do it 
hereafter.” 

“ Do you know that you are talking to the third 
mate of this ship?” demanded Mr. Gale, who 
seemed surprised at Frank’s strong language. 

“ I do, sir, and I am not afraid to speak to you 
more plainly still.” 

“ Why ain’t you.” 


214 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ Because I know that you will neither get angry 
at what I say nor repeat it.” 

“Well, I suppose I ought to give you a good 
blowing-up for your impudence,” said the mate, 
who had to smile in spite of himself, “ but I 
can’t.” 

“No, of course you can’t. You know I have 
cause to be down on every officer of this ship except 
you, and that I will some day be in a position to 
make them smart for it. You know what they have 
done.” 

“Well, we’ll drop that. It ain’t for me to talk 
about the doings of my superiors. I came down 
here to tell you something that’ll liven you up a bit, 
may be. We shall sight the Islands in a few days, 
and the old man is going to put you ashore.” 

“ Good for him,” exclaimed Frank, who was wide 
awake in an instant. “ How about Lucas and 
Barton ?” 

“Don’t talk so loud. The masts, bulkheads and 
everything else have ears in this ship. I don’t 
know about them. He didn’t say.” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


215 


“ They must go if I go,” said Frank. “I shall 
need them for witnesses.” 

“ But you mustn’t call any witnesses. If you go 
ashore at Honolulu, you must keep still and say 
nothing.” 

“ 0, I must! Do you think that’s the sort of 
fellow I am ? Must I let a man kidnap me, carry 
me away from my friends to some out-of-the-way 
part of the world, and then, in order to gain the 
liberty of which he has deprived me and which 
rightfully belongs to me, promise him that he shall 
go scot free ? Must he be allowed to run at large 
to try the same game upon somebody else, and per¬ 
haps abuse and maltreat him until he jumps over¬ 
board, as those two men did shortly before you 
reached Fr’isco ? No, sir ! He be jerked as high 
as the strong arm of the law can lift him, and that’s 
pretty high. A thousand dollars fine and a long 
terra in the penitentiary are the rewards that surely 
await him, and perhaps he can be tried for man¬ 
slaughter. I am bound to have my liberty, Mr. 
Gale, and I shall get it without entering into any 


216 


THE SPORTSMAN S CLUB 


such agreement as that. If anybody makes pro¬ 
mises, it will he Captain Barclay.” 

Frank, being thoroughly aroused, clattered away 
in spite of all the officer’s attempts to interrupt him. 
He could not have told why he said what he did 
toward the last. Perhaps he had a prophetic vision, 
during which the thrilling scenes that were so soon 
to be enacted were plainly portrayed. At any rate 
the words came into his mind, and he uttered them 
regardless of consequences. He was about to say 
something more, but an emphatic and warning 
gesture from the mate stopped him. 

Frank looked up and saw Calamity’s sinister face 
peering down the hatchway. His first impulse was 
to knock him over with the handle of the blubber- 
knife for playing eavesdropper; but the vacant ex¬ 
pression on the man’s countenance induced the hope 
that perhaps he had only just come there, and had 
heard nothing he could make use of. 

“ Look here,” exclaimed Mr. Gale suddenly, 
doubling up his huge fist and shaking it at Frank, 
<£ I am an officer of this ship and you must respect 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


217 


me, or I’ll teach you manners. Put a 6 sir’ in when 
you speak to me. As for Cap’n Barclay promising 
you them boots, I reckon you'll get ’em when this 
work is done; and if I hand ’em to you you’ll 
get ’em over your head for your impudence!” 

“ 0, is that you down there, Mr. Gale?” exclaim¬ 
ed Calamity. “ It is so dark I couldn’t see you. 
The captain wants you on deck.” 

The officer lingered a moment to add a few words 
to what he had already said, and then mounted the 
ladder leading to the deck, while Frank went on 
separating the fleshy fibres from the blubber. 


218 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


CHAPTER XII. 

HOW PRANK SAW THE CONSUL. 

J^RANK knew why it was that Mr. Gale changed 
his tone and manner so suddenly. It was 
Calamity’s presence that made him do it. The 
mate knew that if this man had overheard any of the 
conversation between himself and Frank he would 
go straight to the captain with it; and it would 
never do to let the skipper know that one of his 
officers had been so familiar with a foremast hand. 
It would not only make it unpleasant for himself, 
but Frank would most likely be punished for daring 
to express himself so plainly. Mr. Gale hoped that 
by speaking roughly and flourishing his fists in the 
most approved quarter-deck style, he could put 
Calamity on the wrong scent, and make him believe 
that he had been taking Frank to task for some- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


219 


thing. But the eavesdropper understood all that, 
and was much too smart to he deceived by any such 
artifice. 

“ They can’t shut up my eyes in no such way as 
that,” said he, with a knowing shake of his head. 
“ I heard it all, and see through their backing and 
filling as plainly as they do. I’ve got a chance to 
square yards with both of them now, and I knew 
it would come if I only waited long enough and 
kept my eyes and ears open. That Gentleman 
Black is so stuck up that he won’t notice a common 
fellow like me, and Mr. Gale jawed me the other 
day and called me a soldier and a lubber. Won’t 
there be a healthy old row here directly ? I guess 
yes.” 

There certainly would be if this man was able to 
bring it about, for he took great delight in such 
things, especially when he knew that he was out 
of danger himself. He hunted up the captain with¬ 
out delay, and the latter saw at a glance that he 
had something to tell him. “ What is it, Gardner ?” 
said he. (Behind his back the captain always 


220 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


called him Calamity, and in his heart despised him 
as cordially as any of the crew did.) “Your face 
is full of news.” 

“ You said you would put Nelson ashore at the 
Sandwich Islands if he’d keep still and say nothing, 
didn’t you, cap’n ?” began Calamity. 

“ Yes, I did,” replied the skipper, interested at 
once. “ Have you been pumping him ?” 

“ No, but Mr. Gale has, and he says he’ll hang 
you as high as the strong arm of the law can hist 
you. He can’t be hired to keep his mouth shut. 
He told Mr. Gale so, and him and Mr. Gale were 
talking mighty familiar and friendly like—too much 
so, for it don’t look well for an officer to do such 
things.” 

“ What did Mr. Gale say ?” 

“ I didn’t hear what he said at first, but I saw 
him winking and nodding, and when he saw me 
looking down the hatchway, he began to jaw Nel¬ 
son about them boots you promised him for raising 
that whale. But he did it just to fool me.” 

“ Then Nelson is going to hang me, is he?” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


221 


" Yes, and he wants Barton and Lucas for wit¬ 
nesses. He says he’ll tell the consul everything 
that’s been done aboard this ship, and you shan’t 
be let loose any longer to haze men till they jump 
overboard.” 

“ Go for’ard; go for’ard,” said the captain, 
hastily. 

“ Aha !” thought Calamity, as he returned to his 
duties, “ that was a home-thrust. I must say he 
took it easier than I thought he would. I must 
say this too for Gentleman Black, that since he’s 
been on board, there haven’t been so many men 
triced up or knocked down with handspikes, and 
the grub has been better than it ever was before. 
Now I’ll tell you what’s the truth,” added Calamity, 
slapping his knee as he leaned over and looked 
under the try-pots, “ Gentleman Black is master 
here, if he is nothing but a foremast hand, and 
that’s what’s the matter. That’s the reason the 
old man takes things so easy, and don’t go ripping 
and tearing around the way he used to. I wonder 
if I hadn’t better make friends with him !” 


222 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Meanwhile the work of trying-out went slowly 
on, and contrary to Calamity’s expectations, though 
not much to his surprise, the captain took no steps 
to punish Mr. Gale and Frank for the conversation 
they had had in the blubber-room. Indeed he 
thought he could see a change in the skipper and 
in the two mates. The former very rarely went 
off into one of his fits of rage now, and the 
mates seemed to treat the men a trifle more like 
human beings. Every one of the crew noticed it, 
and Lucas, after sundry winks and nods, told Frank 
in confidence that something was going to happen 
very shortly. And sure enough, something did 
happen, hut it was not just what the old sailor 
thought it would be. 

Finally the last barrel of oil was lowered into the 
hold, and the captain, to the surprise of his men, 
who had never known him to he guilty of an act of 
kindness before, sent all the crew except a boat- 
steerer’s watch below to sleep. And a glorious 
sleep they had too after their days and nights of 
labor. Frank felt like another person when he 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


223 


came on deck in the morning, and went to work 
with a light heart to assist in cleaning up the ship. 
This required perseverance and the outlay of a 
good deal of strength, but it was done in good time, 
and when the deck was wiped down and the bright- 
work cleaned, the Tycoon looked as though she had 
never been near a whale. By this time land was 
in plain sight, and Frank and Lucas found oppor¬ 
tunity to hold several whispered consultations as to 
the course they ought to pursue to secure their 
release. On two points Frank had made up his 
mind: If he went ashore, Lucas and Barton must 
be permitted to go also; and he would not purchase 
his freedom by entering into any agreement whatso¬ 
ever with the captain of the Tycoon. The last one 
of these consultations was broken up by the sudden 
appearance of the third mate. 

“Nelson,” said he, “the old man wants to see 
you in the cabin.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir !” replied Frank. 

“And you had better take a friend’s advice,” 
continued the officer, in a low tone, as the young 


224 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


sailor was about to pass him, “ and agree to wbat 
be has to propose.” 

Frank did not say whether he would or not. He 
wanted first to hear what it was that the captain had 
to propose. He went into the cabin and found the 
skipper and his two mates seated at a table there. 
The former had some shipping articles before him, 
and the first mate was reading a well-thumbed copy 
of Bowditch. This was encouraging. If the three 
officers had been examining the law, they no doubt 
learned that they were liable to some heavy penalties 
for what they had done. 

“Kelson,” said the captain, as Frank came in, 
“you haven’t signed articles yet.” 

“No, sir,” said Frank. 

“ Well, just put your name to them now,” con¬ 
tinued the captain, pushing them across the table. 
“ There’s a chair and there’s a pen.” 

“I beg to be excused, sir,” replied Frank. 

“ Won’t you do it ?” 

“I’d rather not, sir.” 

“ Suit yourself,” said the captain indifferently. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


225 


“ I am only advising you as a friend. You will lose 
your work if you don’t. You can’t collect a 
cent from the ship if you stay aboard of her ten 
years.” 

“I am sorry to differ with you, sir, but I know 
better than that.” 

“Be careful how you speak,” said the captain, 
starting up in his chair. “I have stood a good 
deal from you, and you don’t want to say too 
much. You are not talking to Mr. Gale now.” 

“ You haven’t stood more than I have, sir,” re¬ 
turned Frank. “ It is high time I should speak 
plainly, as I never had the chance before and may 
never have it again. I know that when seamen are 
shipped on American whaling vessels without the 
rate of their pay being specified, they are entitled 
on their discharge in a foreign port, to the sum of 
twenty dollars a month as extra wages.” 

“ How do you happen to know so much about 
law, Nelson ?” asked the first mate. 

“ The way I happen to know so much about these 

matters is because I read up, expecting at one time 

15 


226 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


to go as consul’s clerk to some port in the Mediter¬ 
ranean.” 

The captain and his mates opened their eyes and 
looked at one another. Here was a foremast hand 
who must hold a high social position when he was 
ashore, else he would not number among his friends 
those who had influence enough to secure govern' 
ment appointments. 

“ Then you won’t sign these articles?” continued 
the captain, after thinking a moment. 

“ By no means, sir. I don’t want to go to sea 
for two or three years. I want to go ashore.” 

“ I am willing you should go, if you will promise 
not to enter any complaints.” 

“ If I should promise that, captain, I should tell 
a falsehood, and that is something I’ll not do.” 

“ Will a hundred dollars be any inducement to 
you ?” 

“ Not the slightest.” 

“A hundred dollars besides your wages, I 
mean.” 

“No, sir,” repeated Frank. “You are liable for 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


227 


two hundred dollars for every foremast hand aboard 
this vessel, except Calamity.” 

“ How do you make that out?” 

“ You carried them to sea without making a con¬ 
tract with them.” 

“ That’ll do. You can go on deck,” said the 
captain. 

“ But before I go, sir, I demand to see the Amer¬ 
ican consul of the first port at which we touch,” said 
Frank. 

“Very well, you can see him, but you can’t go 
ashore. If one goes all must go, and the first thing 
I know the ship will be deserted. I’ll bring the 

consul aboard to see you.” 

% 

“That will be perfectly satisfactory, sir. Vic¬ 
tory !” whispered Frank to himself as he went up 
the ladder. “ The people triumphant! The ring 
broken all to smash ! A captain cowed in his own 
cabin by a foremast hand! Hurrah for sailors’ 
rights ! We’re going to see the consul, Lucas !” 

“Aha!” exclaimed the old sailor, with an admir¬ 
ing glance at Frank. “ I knew you had the brains, 


228 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


sir. But I’m sorry we’re going to get off so easy. 
Me and the rest wanted to see you on that quarter¬ 
deck.” 

“And a pretty figure I’d make up there, wouldn’t 
I ?” returned Frank. “ I’m glad you didn’t have a 
chance to carry out your plans.” 

“ What do you think of him, any how ?” asked 
the first mate, after Frank had left the cabin. 

“ I think I’ve got an elephant on my hands,” 
answered the captain. “ I don’t want to keep him, 
and I don’t know how to get rid of him. I wish 
Billings had been in Guinea before he brought him 
aboard here.” 

“ You don’t intend to let him see the consul ?” 

“Am I as green as that?” cried the skipper. 
“ He’s got too smooth a tongue in his head and 
swings it about too loose and reckless. He and 
them two men who were shipped with him must be 
kept close while I am ashore after a crew.” 

“ And what will you do with them then ? They 
can raise a row with one consul as well as another.” 

“ I know it. Shall I turn them adrift in a boat 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


229 


or put them on some vessel bound for the States, or 
set them ashore on some island, and let them shift 
for themselves ?” 

“ You might transfer them to Gale’s boat, and 
some day when they are off after a whale, clear out 
and leave them,” suggested the third mate. “Gale 
is a milk-and-water fellow, and not the man at all 
to get along with a hard crew.” 

“Well, I must put one of those plans into exe¬ 
cution,” said the captain, “ and circumstances shall 
decide which it shall he. I am in as great a hurry 
to see the last of Nelson as he is to see the last of 
me. I’d knock him overboard if I had a good 
chance.” 

“ Don’t do that, cap’n,” said the mate, hastily. 
“ The first one of us who lays an ugly hand on him 
is booked for Davy’s Locker, sure!” 

“ That’s what I am afraid of,” said the captain, 
who being unable to control himself any longer, 
began to relieve his mind by swearing. “ I know 
how things are going, and besides, Calamity has kept 
his eyes and ears open.” 


230 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Two days after this conversation took place 
between the captain and his mates, the Tycoon 
dropped her anchor near the spot where the Stran¬ 
ger lay three days afterward. One of the boats 
was called away at once, a crew selected for her, 
and the captain started for the shore. Frank felt 
jubilant when he saw him go off, but Lucas looked 
rather down-hearted. “ He hasn’t got a single one 
of our friends in that boat, sir,” said the sailor. 

“ Of course not,’’ replied Frank. “He wouldn’t 
take them if he knew who they were, for he wants 
the first chance at the consul himself.” 

“ Yes, and he’ll have the last chance too, sir. 
We’ll never see him.” 

“ Very well, if he doesn’t bring him off as he 
promised, I’ll jump overboard and swim ashore. I 
can make the island very easily. You won’t pull 
a boat in pursuit of me.” 

“ No, sir, and nobody else shall. Neither shall 
the mudhook be hove up till you’ve had a chance 
to say a word for us.” 

“Nelson, the first mate wants to see you in the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


231 


cabin,” said Mr. Gale, coming forward at this 
moment. “ He is going to offer you something to 
keep still, and you had better take it.” 

“ If that is all he wants it will he of no use for 
me to go,” answered Frank, “for my mind is made 
up.” 

“ Go and talk to him, anyhow,” said the officer. 
“Perhaps you can strike some sort of a bargain. I 
want to see you safe off this craft, and now is your 
chance, if ever.” 

“ Nelson !” shouted the mate, from the top of the 
companion ladder. 

“ Coming, sir,” replied Frank. 

He went, and was not a little astonished at the 
reception he met as he entered the cabin. The door 
was suddenly closed behind him, and before he 
could think twice he was powerless, his ankles and 
wrists being heavily ironed. “ Not a word out of 
you,” said the first mate, covering Frank’s head 
wdth a cocked revolver. “ You’ll find out now who 
controls this ship—you or her proper officers.” 

“ You ain’t as smart as some folks seem to 


232 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


think,” said the second mate, with a grin. 44 If 
you were bound to blab, why didn’t you take the 
hundred dollars the cap’n offered you, and wait till 
you got ashore before you began to swing your 
chin?” 

Frank made no reply, and could offer no re¬ 
sistance, as the two mates dragged him out of the 
cabin along a narrow passage-way that led to the 
hold. They stowed him away among the oil casks 
and left him to his meditations. This was the way 
Frank saw the consul at the port of Honolulu. 

Having disposed of Frank, the officers made their 
way back to thse cabin, and one of them mounting 
the companion ladder, called out: 44 Mr. Gale, 
tell Lucas that Nelson has got his money, and ask 
him to come down and get his !” 

Lucas came, w r ondering what arguments the 
mates had brought to bear upon Frank to work so 
great a change in his feelings all at once, and when 
he reached the foot of the ladder he found out what 
they were—-a revolver and a pair of handcuffs. 
The former held him passive while the irons were 


AMONU THE WHALERS. 


238 


slipped on, and then he also was carried to the hold 
and stowed away, but at such a distance from Frank 
that the two could hold no conversation. Barton 
was served in the same manner, and the officers 
having secured the men of whom they stood the 
most in fear, breathed freely once more, and told 
each other that they were still masters of the Ty¬ 
coon. 

The prisoners were kept in the hold almost 
twelve hours—long enough for the captain to bring 
his crew of natives on board and get his vessel well 
out to sea. Then they were released and ordered 
on deck. Frank was disposed to make the best of 
his disappointment, knowing that he could not help 
himself, but Lucas was inclined to smash things. 
He hunted up his friends as soon as he could— 
those who had promised to stand by him and Frank 
through thick and thin—and laid down the law to 
them in stronger language than we care to quote. 
“Why, what’s the matter?” asked the sailors, as 
soon as their angry mate gave them a chance to 
speak. “ Where have you been so long ?” 


234 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ That’s what’s the matter,” replied Lucas, show- 
ing his wrists. 

“ That’s where I’ve been so long,” he added, 
tapping the marks the irons had left. “ Sailed the 
blue water, man and boy for thirty-five years, I 
have, and never had the darbies on me before. Me 
and Cap’n Nelson’s both been there, and Barton 
too; and here you chaps stood around like so 
many bumps on a log, and never lifted a hand to 
help us !” 

“ What could we have done, even if we had 
known that you were in trouble, while the mates 
were walking around with their pistols strapped to 
their waists and holding us tight to our work ?” 
asked one of the sailors. 

Lucas opened his eyes at this. Did the mates 
know of the plans that had so often been discussed 
in the forecastle ? It looked like it. 

“ Somebody’s been talking while Calamity was 
about,” said the boatswain’s-mate. “Never mind; 
we’ve missed one chance, but we’ll have better luck 
next time. The ship’s going to Japan, and she’ll 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


235 


have another man on her quarter-deck when she 
comes back.” 

And so she did, but Lucas did very little toward 
bringing about the change. It was Captain Bar¬ 
clay himself; hut of course he did not intend to 
do it. 

Almost the first man Frank saw when he came 
on deck after his release was the third mate. 
“Nelson,” said he, earnestly, “I had no hand in 
this business. If I had known what those men in¬ 
tended to do, I should have warned you.” 

“I believe you, sir,” replied Frank. “I lay 
nothing to your charge, as you will find when the 
day of settlement comes.” 

Frank looked toward the Islands which the ship 
was fast leaving behind, then at the dusky, muscular 
Kanakas who thronged the deck, and went to work 
with a heavy heart. He had already had more than 
enough of whaling. He did not mind the danger¬ 
ous, laborious duties he had to perform so much as 
he did the life he led in the forecastle. Of course 
it was kept neat and clean, like the rest of the ship, 


236 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


but it smelled horribly of tar and bilge water, and 
the men into whose company he was thrown there, 
were not just the sort he would have selected for 
associates had he been permitted to choose. It was 
bad enough before, but now here were a score and 
more of heathen with whom he had to bunk. 
Frank did not know how he could stand it. The 
only thing that had kept him up thus far was the 
belief that all this would end very shortly; but 
that hope was gone now, and time only would show 
what was in store for him. 

Frank worked hard while on duty and talked a 
good deal when on watch, to keep himself from 
thinking too much. He had the satisfaction of see¬ 
ing that the captain and his two mates did not treat 
the crew with any more severity than they had 
always done, and some of the old members of the 
ship’s company were often heard to declare that 
they did not act like the same men. As for the 
natives, Frank very soon found reason to change the 
opinions he had formed of them. They had all seen 
service in whalers, and proved to he the neatest 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


237 


and most peaceable portion of the crew. More than 
that, they did not swear, and it was some relief to 
work by the side of men who could talk without 
putting an oath or two in every sentence they 
uttered. 

As soon as the ship was fairly under way the 
mast-head was manned, and the sailors set about 
preparing themselves for the real business of the 
voyage. A complete change was made in the boats’ 
crews, and Frank, to his delight, found himself with 
Lucas, Barton, and two other foremast hands, 
assigned to the third mate’s boat. Frank held his 
old position as bow-oarsman, and Lucas was boat- 
steerer. He soon proved himself to be a good one 
too. He did not fall overboard again, or give Frank 
any more opportunities to take his place and strike 
a whale he had missed. During the next three 
weeks nine whales were added to the stock already 
in the hold, and of this number four were captured 
by Mr. Gale’s boat. Frank very soon got over his 
nervousness, and as a consequence went just as far 
the other way, and was inclined to be a little too 


238 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


daring. He had an uncomfortable habit of wrap¬ 
ping a line about a thwart when he could not hold 
it, and Lucas, after repeatedly telling him never to 
do it again, got out of patience, and Frank was 
moved toward the other end of the boat—“ pro¬ 
moted backward.” He was seated at the stroke- 
oar, and the bow-oar given into the hands of Barton, 
who knew too much of the nature of the game they 
were hunting to run any risks. 

Meanwhile the Tycoon was rapidly approaching 
her cruising grounds, and one morning the captain 
told his officers that the Mangrove Islands lay 
directly in their course two hundred miles distant, 
and that it was his intention to stop there for water 
-and terrapins. That same day a whale was raised, 
and the captain and the third mate set off to cap¬ 
ture it. The two boats pulled side by side for a 
mile or more, and then the whale took the alarm 
and made off. “Never mind, Mr. Gale,” shouted 
the captain. “ You keep on after him, and I’ll 
follow you with the ship.” 

Mr. Gale promptly hoisted his sail and went in 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


239 


pursuit. The whale led them a long chase, but get¬ 
ting a little over his fright at last, he allowed the 
boat to approach within striking distance, and gave 
Lucas a chance to throw his harpoons into him. 
Then a most terrific fight ensued, which was so 
long and so stubbornly contested that Frank began 
to think he had never seen an ugly whale before. 
The monster seemed determined to destroy his ene¬ 
mies ; but the mate kept at him, and by his ex¬ 
cellent management succeeded in taking his boat 
through the struggle without the loss of any of her 
crew, and with so little damage that an hour’s work 
by the ship’s carpenter would make her fit for sea 
again. When it was ended and the whale rolled 
over with his fin out, the mate seized one of the 
flags, and turned to signal his triumph to the ship. 

“ It’s lucky you wasn’t in the bow,” said Lucas, 
drawing his hand across his dripping forehead and 
nodding to Frank. “ If you’d been here with the 
line wrapped around a thwart when he sounded the 
last time, there wouldn’t have been one of us left 
to tell the story of this fight!” 


240 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“Pass that bucket aft and I’ll bail her out,” said 
Frank, drawing a long breath and glad that the 
danger was over. “ He hit us a pretty hard blow 
with his jaw, and the water is running in here like 
a small Niagara. What’s the matter, Mr. Gale?” 

This question was called forth by an exclama¬ 
tion of wonder from the third mate. When he 
turned to signal the ship he stopped suddenly, 
looked all around the horizon, and then the flag 
dropped from his hands. The Tycoon was almost 
hull down—nothing but her topsails were visible. 
During the five hours that the brave officer had 
been pursuing and battling with the whale, the ship 
was standing away from him instead of coming to 
his relief, and he had been too busy to see it until 
this moment. 

“What’s the matter, sir ?” repeated Frank. 

Mr. Gale sat down, his face whiter now than it 
had been at any time during the deadly fight he 
and his men had just passed through, and pointed 
toward the Tycoon’s receding topsails. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


241 


CHAPTER XIII. 


TURNED ADRIFT. 


J^RANK looked, and was not a little surprised 
to find that the Tycoon, which he had all the 
while supposed was following the boat, was almost 
out of sight. He did not understand it at first, but 
a single glance at the faces of his companions ex¬ 
plained it all. Even Lucas, who had shown so 
much courage a few minutes before, betrayed the 
utmost consternation now. 

“ Well, Nelson,” said Mr. Gale, in a tone of 
resignation, “ Captain Barclay has got rid of you 
at last. 

“ Why, you don’t suppose that he intends to 
desert us !” cried Frank. 

The mate shrugged his shoulders and pointed 

with his thumb toward the ship, as if to say that 

16 


242 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Frank could see what she was doing as well as he 
could, and might interpret her actions to suit him¬ 
self. 

“It can’t be possible !” said Frank. “No man 
on earth could be guilty of an act of treachery like 
this.” 

“ A captain who will allow his men to be abused 
until they jump overboard to put themselves out of 
his way, will do anything,” returned Mr. Gale, 
quietly. “ Hoist the sail, Lucas ; you had better 
bail her out, Nelson. We must keep her afloat 
until she carries us two hundred miles.” 

“ Is there any water, sir ?” asked Barton. 

“ Yes, the keg is full, and we need a taste of it 
after our hard work ; but we must touch it lightly, 
for there is no telling when we shall get any more. 
The Mangrove Islands are the nearest land, and, as 
I said, they are two hundred miles away. It is 
lucky that I know the course.” 

The sail having been hoisted, the men took a re¬ 
freshing drink all around, and settled back on their 
seats to think over their situation. Frank could 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


243 


not yet believe that Captain Barclay bad sent them 
out there alone, with no other object in view than to 
desert them. He kept telling himself that the ship 
must have raised another whale and gone in pursuit 
of it, and he watched her closely, expecting every 
moment to see her shorten sail and come-to to wait for 
them; but she kept on, with all her canvas spread, 
and very soon nothing but her royals were visible 
above the horizon. Frank was obliged to believe it 
now, and shuddered when he thought of what was 
yet to come. With a leaky boat under them, not a 
mouthful of anything to eat, and with only a very 
small supply of water to allay the raging thirst 
caused by their five hours’ work under a broiling sun, 
their situation was one calculated to frighten any¬ 
body. But still it might have been worse, and in 
this thought Frank found a little consolation. The 
mate knew which way to steer to find land, and if 
they could only keep the boat afloat twenty-four 
hours they would be safe. But suppose the boat 
had been stove during the fight with the whale ! Sup¬ 
pose he had cut it in two with his jaw, or smashed it 


244 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


in pieces with his flukes, as he had tried so hard to do, 
and left the crew struggling in the water; what 
then ! Captain Barclay would have, deserted them 
all the same, and they would have been left power¬ 
less. Surrounded by an army of hungry sharks 
(Frank now and then caught a momentary glimpse 
of a sharp fin cutting the water as one of these vo¬ 
racious monsters hurried toward the whale they had 
just left, being attracted no doubt by the blood he 
had spouted during his flurry), their sufferings would 
have been ended, and there would have been none 
left to tell the story of the captain’s treachery. 

“ Come, come, hoys ! This will never do in the 
world,” said Mr. Gale, suddenly breaking the silence 
that had reigned for the last half hour. “ Wake up, 
there ! What’s the matter with you that you look 
so sober ? If we were eight or nine hundred miles 
out at sea, we’d have something to worry over; hut 
if the wind holds this way, we shall he all right by 
to-morrow at this time. The Tycoon is going to 
the Mangrove Islands for water, and maybe we 
shall be lucky enough to catch her there. If we 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


245 


can’t stand it to do without food for that length of 
time we had better jump overboard at once, for we ve 
no business to be sailors. Come, Lucas, begin there 
in the bow, and sing a song or tell a story !” 

“ I can’t, sir!” replied the sailor. 

“All right. You shan’t have any water the next 
time it is passed around. Go on, Barton. Sing a 
song or tell a story—a lively one, mind.” 

“ Hold on a bit, sir !” exclaimed Lucas. “ I’ll 
do almost anything to get another drink of that 
water.” 

This order soon brought about a great change in 
the feelings of the men. Their minds being diverted 
from the dangers of their situation, something like 
merriment soon began to prevail. As it was under¬ 
stood that each one must do his share toward enter¬ 
taining his companions, and that the first one w T ho 
failed to tell a story or sing a song when his turn 
came, should forfeit his next drink of water, this 
trial of memory and ingenuity was kept up until 
far in the night. It would seem as though men 
who had spent their lives amid scenes of danger and 


246 


THE SPORTSMAN S CLUB 


excitement could never be at a loss for something 
to talk about, but even the oldest among the sailors 
ran short of stories at last, and when this happened 
they did not hesitate to make up one as they went 
along; and some of those they told were as ridicu¬ 
lous as the story Dick Lewis told the captain of the 
fishing boat. Frank drew on his experience among 
the mountains and in the woods, and his stories 
must have been worth listening to, for when his turn 
came the men were all wide awake. 

At last w r hen the crew began to show signs of 
drowsiness, Mr. Gale ordered four of them to 
make themselves as comfortable as they could and 
go to sleep, while he and Frank looked out for the 
boat. Mr. Gale steered by a compass, the face 
being lighted up by a small lantern with which 
whale-boats are always provided, and Frank talked 
to him to keep him awake, and bailed out the water 
as fast as it ran in. He did not learn anything 
encouraging during the four hours that he and Mr. 
Gale kept watch. The mate said they were sure to 
reach the Islands unless a storm blew them out of 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


247 


their course or swamped them, but he did not like 
to think of the way they would fare after they got 
there. The largest of the Islands was often visited 
by whalers, he continued, hut it was almost a land 
unknown. It was a good place to go to get water 
and fresh meat in the shape of terrapins, but he 
had never yet heard of a boat’s crew, who, leaving 
the beach to explore the island, had ever returned 
to tell what they saw there. Many a fine whale 
ship which, when last spoken, had her hold nearly 
filled with oil and was almost ready to set out on 
her return voyage, had suddenly disappeared, leav¬ 
ing no trace behind. It was supposed that some of 
them had gone to the Islands for water, and had 
either been wrecked on the treacherous shoals and 
reefs with which they were surrounded, or been 
captured and plundered by the natives. He had 
seen men who had been held captive there for years, 
and had only escaped at last by smuggling themselves 
on board some vessel whose crew was too strong to 
be successfully attacked. But if they succeeded in 
getting there they would find an abundance to eat 


248 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


and plenty of water to drink, and that was better 
than being tossed about on the waves of the Pacific 
in an open boat. 

Prank now began to understand Captain Barclay’s 
plans. There w T as more in them than he had at 
first supposed. The skipper wanted to be rid of 
Frank and his friends, and the whale they had killed 
and deserted, furnished him with an excuse for send¬ 
ing the boat away from the ship. When he arrived 
in port he could say that she had been smashed in 
pieces by the whale, and all her crew sent to the 
bottom. He took his chances on this. If the event 
really happened, so much the better; but if they 
came through the fight in safety, and succeeded in 
reaching the Islands, the natives w^ould detain them 
as prisoners. In either case he was clear of them, 
and they could never appear against him in a court 
of justice. 

“ I can understand all that,” said Frank, after 
he had explained this to the mate, “ but there is one 
thing I can’t quite see through : Why did he send 
you off with us ? You never said you would prose- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


249 


cute him, did you ? And there are two other men 
in the boat who never made any threats of that 
kind. I am very sorry that the friendship you 
have exhibited for me should have brought you 
into this trouble. I shall never be able to repay 
you.” 

“It wasn’t that at all,” said the mate, in reply. 
“ The captain has always been afraid of me, and he 
was just as anxious to get me off the vessel as he 
was to get you off. I’m not the sort of officer that 
suits him. I have been a foremast hand myself, 
and I can’t see the beauty of banging men about as 
if they had no more feeling than so many logs of 
wood. As for sending these two other men with us, 
he had to give the boat a full crew, you know, and 
he put in those against whom he had a grudge.” 

Frank and the mate talked in this way until 
almost daylight, and then the former called Lucas 
and Barton, who steered the boat and kept her bailed 
out, while Frank and Mr. Gale lay down on the 
thwarts and slept until the sun grew too warm for 
them. It was then nine o’clock. As they had no 


250 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


breakfast to serve up they took a drink of water all 
around, which seemed to aggravate rather than 
relieve their thirst, the supply the mate allowed 
them being so small; and at one o’clock by Mr. 
Gale’s watch, when the Mangrove Islands were in 
plain sight, they emptied the keg. 

Propelled by a favorable breeze the boat rapidly 
approached the land, and finally the outlines of the 
shore and the trees on the hill-sides could be easily 
distinguished. Suddenly Mr. Gale arose, and 
standing erect in the sternsheets, gazed steadily 
into the little bay toward which the boat was head¬ 
ing. “ She’s there!” said he, a moment later. 

“ The Tycoon ?” asked Frank, running his eye 
along the shore in the vain effort to find the object 
that had attracted the officer’s attention. 

“ Yes, the Tycoon !” 

“ Will we go aboard of her, Mr. Gale ?” asked 
one of the crew. 

“Certainly, just as straight as we can go. We 
belong to her, don’t we ?” 

The men said nothing in reply, but their actions 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


251 


told what was passing in their minds. Some seemed 
delighted, while others beat their open palms with 
their clenched hands, and banged the oars violently 
down on the thwarts. It was plain that Captain 
Barclay had some men in his ship’s company who 
would give him serious trouble if they ever found 
the opportunity. 

“ There’s something wrong with her,” continued 
the mate, still gazing earnestly at the ship, which 
Frank had at last been able to discover. 

“ So I was thinking,” said the latter. “ She’s 
close in shore and has her topsails aback. She 
can’t be lying-to in there.” 

“ No, she’s aground,” replied the mate, “and 
they are trying to work her off.” 

All eyes were now turned toward the ship which 
came rapidly into view as the boat approached the 
shore. It was plain that she was hard and fast 
aground. The crew were running about the deck, 
pulling the yards first one way and then the other, 
in the hope of getting the sails full enough to work 
her off; but the breeze was not sufficiently strong, 


252 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


and besides the tide was running out, so that the 
ship was every moment sinking more firmly into 
her bed on the sand bar. Presently one of the 
crew discovered the approaching boat. It was one 
of the Kanakas. He gazed at it a moment, then 
jumped up and clapped his bands, calling out “ Gal- 
ickhee!” or some such tongue-twisting name which 
he and his people had bestowed upon the third 
officer. That brought all the crew to the side, where 
they stood waving their hats and shouting out words 
of welcome. Frank and the rest were astonished at 
this reception. Where were Captain Barclay and 
his mates that they permitted the crew to act in this 
way ? 

“ 0, Mr. Gale, you’re just in time,” cried one of 
the men, who answered to the name of Boson, “ only 
I wish you had come a little sooner. We’re up to 
our necks in trouble.” 

“Not an officer aboard—all gone—the ship a 
thousand miles from water—or she might as well be, 
she’s so hard a-ground, six men dead and the niggers 
thicker than blackberries,” chimed in Tully, another 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


253 


of the crew, stamping about the deck and swinging 
his arms wildly in the air. 

The men in the whaleboat were greatly amazed. 
They clambered over the side with all possible haste, 
each one demanding to know what was the matter. 
The crew shook each of them by the hand as if they 
were overjoyed to meet them once more, and then 
silently directed their attention to different parts of 
the deck, as if telling them to see for themselves 
what was the matter. Frank stood speechless while 
he looked. The deck was in the greatest confusion. 
Harpoons, spades, lances and hand-spikes were scat¬ 
tered about, and with them were mingled curious 
weapons and ornaments that he had never seen 
before, and blubber-knives, cutlasses and muskets 
with the bayonets attached. These last came from 
the ship’s armory, and their presence on deck was 
enough to prove that there had been a fight, even 
had other indications been wanting. 

A feeble attempt had been made to clear up things 
a little, but the traces that were left of the recent 
contest proclaimed that it had been a severe and 


254 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


by no means a bloodless one. Frank ran bis eye 
hastily over the crew gathered about him, and saw 
that there were some familiar faces missing—among 
them those of the captain, his two mates and his old 
enemy, Calamity. What if he had been there when 
the fight came off? Might not he also have been 
among the missing ? Perhaps Captain Barclay’s 
attempt to get him off his vessel had been the means 
of saving his life. 

“ What’s been going on here, any how?” de¬ 
manded the mate, as soon as he could speak. 

A chorus of hoarse voices arose in reply, each one 
trying to give his version of the story, and to make 
himself heard above his companions ; but Mr. Gale, 
finding that there was nothing to be learned in that 
way, commanded silence, and pointing to one of the 
crew ordered him to speak for all. The man com¬ 
plied, telling his story in regular sailor lingo which 
we put into English as follows:— 

The Tycoon arrived at the island that morning 
about three o’clock, and came to anchor two miles 
outside the bar. The captain, knowing the treach- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


255 


erous character of the natives, kept one watch on 
deck until morning, hut nothing suspicious being 
seen, the ship stood close in at daylight, and came 
to; after which the water-barrels were got over¬ 
board, and the captain and first mate set out in 
their boats to tow them ashore. No sooner had the 
crews touched the beach than they were assailed 
by a swarm of natives, who had been lying in 
ambush waiting for them. Almost at the same 
moment two large war canoes filled with savages 
made their appearance, coming from one of the 
numerous little inlets which set into the land from 
the bay. They headed straight for the ship, their 
crews brandishing their lances and clubs, and yell¬ 
ing at the top of their lungs. 

The sailors on board the Tycoon, who had wit¬ 
nessed the massacre of their shipmates without the 
power to aid them, now found themselves called 
upon to provide for their own safety. The second 
mate, who was in command, made an effort to 
bring the ship about and run out of the bay ; but 
she struck the bar in going around, running on 


256 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


with sufficient force to knock all the crew off their 
feet. They could not run, and their only chance 
for life was to heat off their assailants, who outnum¬ 
bered them five to one. The weapons that were 
left in the arm-chest were quickly brought up, mus¬ 
kets, pistols and cartridges to put into them were 
distributed among the crew, lances, harpoons and 
spades placed about the deck in convenient nooks, 
so that they could be readily seized, and by the 
time these preparations were completed, their foes 
were upon them. They made the attack at two 
different points, one canoe running under the 
bow and the other coming alongside at the star¬ 
board quarter. The sailors met them at both 
places, and the first assault was repulsed. The 
seamen, having the advantage of position, knocked 
their assailants over the side as fast as they could 
climb to the top of the bulwarks, but the natives 
persevered, and overwhelming numbers began to 
tell. They succeeded in gaining a footing on deck, 
and drove the sailors before them toward the waist. 

Almost in the beginning of the fight the second 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


257 


mate had been struck down by a lance, and as there 
was no one to direct the movements of the sailors, 
each man fought on his own hook, and did just 
what he thought best, without paying any attention 
to his neighbors. Boson probably saved the day. 
While the sailors were retreating he caught up the 
mate’s revolver, which was lying on deck, and turn¬ 
ing fiercely on his foes fired all the barrels in quick 
succession, every shot striking a native and bring¬ 
ing him dead or wounded to the deck. That was 
more than the enemy could endure. Appalled by 
the havoc the six-shooter created, they beat a hasty 
retreat, followed by the sailors, who thinned their 
ranks very perceptibly before they could clamber 
over the side into their boat. As they were about 
to push off, Boson and Tully added a grand finale to 
the victory. The former threw a harpoon at one 
of the natives, which, missing its object, passed 
through the bottom of the boat, knocking a hole in 
her that would have caused her to sink long before 
she could reach the shore, even had Tully not fol- 
17 


258 THE sportsman’s club 

lowed it up, as he did, with the heavy snatch-block, 
which made a complete wreck of her. 

The enemy being beaten at the quarter, the 
sailors who defended that part of the ship ran 
to the assistance of their friends in the bow; 
but the fight was over there, also. The natives, 
failing to gain the deck, became discouraged, and 
dropping back into their boat, made all haste to 
reach the shore. Some succeeded, others did not. 
The sailors rushed for their muskets and pistols, 
which they had thrown to the deck after firing their 
contents at the foe, and hastily ramming down cart¬ 
ridges, opened fire on the natives. Those of their 
companions who were not provided with these 
weapons, employed themselves in clearing the deck 
of the dead and wounded the savages had left 
behind them, tumbling them all unceremoniously 
over the side, and never looking to see what became 
of them afterward. 

The battle being ended, the crew began to look 
about them and make an estimate of their losses. 
They found that six of their number had fallen 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


259 


beneath the war-clubs and lances of their assailants, 
which, counting in the twelve that had gone ashore 
in the boats, made eighteen men they had lost out 
of thirty-five. Greatly alarmed, disheartened by 
the loss of all their officers, and afraid to risk 
another encounter with their diminished numbers, 
they hastily committed the bodies of their dead com¬ 
panions to the deep, and set to work to get the ship 
afloat. They had kept hard at it for more than six 
hours. They had moved her a little, but the tide 
began to fall just at the wrong time, and there she 
was as fast as if she had been nailed to the ground. 

The new-comers listened to this story with breath¬ 
less attention. If any evidence w 7 as needed to con¬ 
vince them of its truthfulness, they found it in the 
frightened faces of the men and the disordered state 
of the deck, which bore unmistakable signs of the 
conflict. Their assailants had left some of their 
property behind them in the shape of lances, war- 
clubs and head-dresses, and close alongside the ship 
floated the wreck of the canoe, which was slowly 
moving out to sea with the tide. A moment later 


260 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


additional and most unexpected evidence was pro¬ 
duced. A warning exclamation uttered by Lucas, 
under bis breath, drew all eyes toward him. Frank 
saw him pick up a lance that happened to be lying 
near, and following the direction of his gaze, saw 
that it was fastened upon a head which was slowly 
rising above the combings of the fore hatch—a head 
covered with a mass of shaggy hair. It was one 
of the natives, who had no doubt been knocked into 
the hold during the fight, and was now coming up 
to see if the coast was clear, so that he could make 
his escape. Not a man moved. Every one held 
his breath as Lucas raised the long, slender whale- 
lance in the air and held it poised in both hands. 

The head w T as raised slowly, cautiously, inch by 
inch, above the combings of the hatchway, and pres¬ 
ently a dark-brown forehead and then a pair of eyes 
appeared. At that instant the lance whistled through 
the air. Thrown by a practised hand and flying true 
to its aim, its keen point was buried in the combings 
exactly in range with the spot where the head had 
been a second before. Its owner had seen the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


261 


weapon coming and dodged just in time, but his 
escape was a narrow one. 

“Avast, there!” cried a voice from the hold. 
“ Ain’t you Christians enough to give a white man a 
chance for life and liberty ?” 

The sailors stood and looked at one another with¬ 
out speaking. 


262 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


CHAPTER XIV. 

OLD TIMES REVIVED. 

J say! on deck, there!” continued the voice. 

“ Don’t throw any more of them things at me, 
and I’ll come up!” 

These words aroused the crew. They made a rush 
for the fore-hatch, and when they reached it found 
the owner of the head crouching among the oil 
barrels. Frank looked at him in astonishment, and 
could scarcely believe that he was a white man. 
His only clothing was a pair of tattered trowsers, 
and those portions of his person which were un¬ 
protected were as brown as sole-leather, made so, no 
doubt, by long exposure to the sun and weather. 
Moreover, his body was profusely tattooed, so that 
at the distance Frank stood from him, he looked 
as though he had on a tight-fitting under-shirt 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


268 


of some dark-colored material, with light blue 
slashings. 

“ Who are you, and where did you come from ?” 
demanded the mate. 

“ I’m Chips,” replied the man. “ I used to be 
carpenter of the whale-ship Mary Starbuck, that 
was wrecked here long ago. It was so long ago,” 
he added, putting his hand to his forehead in a 
bewildered sort of way, “ that I have almost forgot 
how it happened.” 

“ Come on deck,” said the mate, in a very differ¬ 
ent tone of voice, “ and tell us all about it.” 

A dozen pairs of ready hands were stretched 
down to the prisoner—for such Frank now knew him 
to be—and in a moment more he was hoisted out 
of the hold to the deck. Frank had a good view 
of him then, and saw that he really was a white 
man. His long, matted beard, which hung down 
nearly to his waist, had afforded some protection to 
his breast, and the skin beneath it was almost as 
white as his own. The man pulled his forelock 
when he found himself standing in the presence of 


264 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


the mate, and gave his trowsers a regular sailor 
hitch. 

“ I remember hearing of the loss of the Star- 
buck,” said Mr. Gale. “The news reached Nan¬ 
tucket just before I sailed ; but it wasn’t so very 
long ago—not quite two years.” 

“ Is that all, sir ? It seems a longer time to 
me,” said the man, whom we will call by the name 
he had given. “ You’re the first white men I’ve set 
eyes on since then, except those on the island, and 
you can’t call them white now. Some of them are 
blacker than I am.” 

“ Do you mean to say that there are men on that 
island held as prisoners ?” asked Frank. 

“ Four more of ’em, sir, and one has been here, 
as near as he can calculate, about ten years. I 
hope you won’t sail without trying to do something 
for ’em, sir. They lead a hard life here.” 

“ How do you happen to be aboard my ship ?” 
asked the mate. 

“ I came off in one of the canoes, sir, and watch¬ 
ing my chance jumped into the hold. I was willing 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 265 

to fight for my liberty, but I was afraid that if I 
tried to join in with you, you would kill me, not 
knowing who I was, and if you didn’t the natives 
would, when they saw me trying to desert ’em ; and 
I was so anxious to see my home and family once 
more that I didn’t dare run any risks.” 

Chips then went on to tell how he came to be a 
prisoner in the hands of the islanders. His narra¬ 
tive would make an interesting chapter by itself; 
but as it has no hearing on our story, and nothing 
to do with the events that happened afterward, we 
condense it into a few sentences. The ship to 
which he belonged was wrecked while lying at the 
island to fill up with water. A furious storm first 
disabled her, so that she could not make an offing, 
and then drove her high and dry upon the bar. 
Only two of the crew succeeded in reaching the 
shore, Chips and another, and they were immedi¬ 
ately pounced upon by the natives, who carried them 
in triumph to their principal village, which was 
hidden away among the rocky gorges in the interior 
of the island. They found four other prisoners 


266 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


there, and it was owing to their influence that Chips 
was so well received. He was a carpenter, and 
just the man the natives wanted. His companion, 
however, was nothing hut a foremast hand, and not 
being of any particular use, he was harshly treated, 
and was often in danger of his life. Being driven 
desperate at last, he seized the first opportunity for 
escape that presented itself, and succeeded, at very 
great risk, in swimming off* to a ship that came there 
for water. He warned the captain off, most likely, 
for the vessel went away at once, and it w T as proba¬ 
bly through him that the news of the loss of the 
Mary Starbuck was carried to Nantucket. The 
five prisoners who were left were constantly on the 
alert to elude the vigilance of their captors, but 
this was the first opportunity that Chips had ever 
found. He and his companions were allowed the 
freedom of the island until a vessel hove in sight, 
and then they were hurried to the village and kept 
under guard as long as she remained. 

Being satisfied at last that there was but one 
way to accomplish his object, Chips made him- 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


267 


self perfectly at home on the island, acted quite 
contented, and finally succeeded in making the 
natives believe that he had no desire to leave them. 
He became a savage to all intents and purposes. 
He took part in their dances and pow-wows, joined 
in their debates, tried to teach them the use of the 
fire-arms they found on the vessels that fell into 
their hands, and so won their confidence that they 
permitted him to take part in the attack on the 
Tycoon. Watching his chance, while the fight was 
in progress, he slipped into the hold, and there he 
was among his own kind once more. 

“ And now I hope you’ll lend a hand to them 
poor fellows I left behind, sir,” said Chips, in con¬ 
clusion. “ It can be easy done now, but to-morrow 
it’ll be too late. There ain’t more’n a hundred 
fighting men on the island, but to-night they’ll send 
off* canoes after help, and in the morning, if you’re 
here, you will have an army of ’em howling about 
you.” 

“ How far is it to the village ?” asked Mr. Gale. 

“ 0, you’ll not have to go back to the principal 


268 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


town, sir,” answered Chips. “ There’s a little fish¬ 
ing village right here on the beach, and the natives 
will all be there to-night, holding a grand pow-wow 
and waiting for the help that’s coming to-morrow. 
If we can get close to them and give them a volley 
before they know it, they’ll run like deer !” 

“ Why I thought you said they had fire-arms,” 
exclaimed the mate. 

“ So they have, sir, but it would make you laugh 
to see them use them,” said Chips. “ They take 
the butt of a gun under their arms, shut their 
eyes and turn away their heads before they pull 
the trigger. They seem to think it is the noise that 
does the damage. All we want, you understand, 
sir, is to drive ’em at the start. They won’t run 
far before they’ll turn on us, and then they’ll fight; 
but by the time they do that, the prisoners will have 
had a chance to take care of themselves, and we 
can be back to our boats. I know just where the 
village is, and can lead you to it in ten minutes 
after we touch the beach.” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


269 


“ I suppose you don’t know anything about those 
boats’ crews that went ashore ?” said the mate. 

“No, sir. Those who were not killed are pri¬ 
soners, and we’ll find them at the village.” 

The man’s proposition was well worth thinking 
over, the mate told himself. He felt that he had a 
duty to perform toward the prisoners in the hands 
of the savages, and he was not the one to shrink 
from it. True, he had a small force to work with, 
but if he acted with promptness and decision when 
the time for action arrived, much might be done. 
“ Boys, turn to and straighten up here,” said he, 
after a moment’s reflection. “ Let’s make the old 
Tycoon look a little more like herself. Nelson, 
come with me.” 

The men went to work with a will—all except 
Lucas, Barton and Chips, who disappeared in the 
forecastle for a few minutes. When they came on 
deck again Chips could hardly have been told from 
the rest of the crew, his tattooed body being clothed 
in a full sailor’s rig, and his matted hair covered 
with a new tarpaulin. He lent a hand with the 


270 THE sportsman’s club 

rest, and soon proved that he had not forgotten how 
to do a seaman’s duty. 

Frank followed Mr. Gale to the quarter-deck. 
“ What do you think of this ?” asked the mate. 
“ Shall we risk it ?” 

“By all means,” answered Frank, quickly. 
“ How would you and I feel if we were held cap¬ 
tives by these heathen, and some of our own coun¬ 
trymen should come here, and, after learning our 
situation, go off without making an effort to help 
us V We may be able to rescue the captain or some 
of his men, if they are still alive.” 

Mr. Gale looked at his companion a little doubt¬ 
fully. 

“ 0, I mean it,” said Frank, who knew what was 
passing in the officer’s mind. “ I have no reason to 
like Captain Barclay, and if I could once bring him 
before a court of justice he would suffer for what; he 
has done. But this is a different thing. If I get 
the chance, I’ll try just as hard to help him as I 
would to help you.” 

“ Well, I suppose that is the right sort of feeling,” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


271 


said the mate, “ but it isn’t my style, I am free to 
say. A man who has the heart to turn a boat’s 
crew adrift on the ocean, doesn’t deserve any help 
when he’s in difficulty. It’s the others I want to 
work for, but here’s the trouble : I don’t know any¬ 
thing about this fighting business.” 

“ I’ve had a little experience in it,” said Frank, 
“ and so have Lucas and Barton. They are old 
men-of-war’s men, and I know you can depend on 
them. I’ll give you all the help I can.” 

“ Won’t you boss the job ?” 

“ No, I’d rather not. The men will yield you 
more prompt obedience.” 

“ I know a story worth two of that, sir. I ain’t 
blind or deaf, either.” 

After some more conversation it was decided that 
the Tycoon’s crew could not leave the island with 
clear consciences unless they made some sort of a 
demonstration in favor of the captives, and Frank 
was finally prevailed upon to take command of the 
expedition. This being settled, the first thing the 
young sailor did was to call Chips aft. He and Mr. 


272 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Gale spent an hour in conversation with him, and 
when the man went forward again Frank held in his 
hands a map of the island, on which the position 
of the fishing village, the situation of every hut in 
it, the shape of the jungle that surrounded it, and 
the location of all the paths that led to it were 
plainly marked. Frank also had a short consulta¬ 
tion with Lucas, who, when it was over, made his 
way forward again, winking and nodding as he 
always did when he had anything on his mind. 
His companions tried hard to find out what had 
passed between him and the captain, as everybody 
called Frank now; but Lucas, while he seemed to 
grow in size under the pressure of the secret that 
had been committed to his keeping, remained as 
dumb as a tar-bucket. 

Everything had now been done that could be done 
before dark—except getting the boats and weapons 
in readiness—and Frank recollected that he had 
been at sea for twenty-four hours in an open boat 
without anything to eat, and that he was very hungry. 
Perhaps the savory odors that now and then came 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


273 


from tlie galley recalled this fact to his mind. At 
any rate they brought his appetite back to him, and 
he did ample justice to the abundant meal that was 
soon served up. The captain was not there now to 
superintend the drawing of the provisions, so the 
doctor went into the store-room and helped himself. 
The consequence was that some articles which right¬ 
fully belonged to the men, but which they had never 
tasted since leaving port, such as beans, flour, dried 
apples and molasses, found their way into the fore¬ 
castle. Each man got an extra cup of coffee— 
strong coffee, too—an extra tablespoonful of sugar 
in it, and all he wanted to eat besides. Mr. Gale 
and Frank dined in the cabin and the captain’s 
steward waited on them. 

“ That’s all right,” said Lucas, when the steward 
told him of it afterward. “ Cap’n Nelson’s a cap’n 
just as much as Cap’n Barclay, and just as good a 
one, too. Don’t I know ? He belongs in the cabin 
and at the head of the table, and he’s got to stay there 
now. He shan’t never come into this forecastle 

again !” 

18 


274 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


After dinner two of the boats were overhauled and 
put in readiness for the expedition, which was to 
leave the ship as soon as darkness settled down to 
hide her from the watchful eyes of those on shore, 
the muskets and pistols were loaded, and a dozen 
rounds of cartridges provided for each man. Of 
course these preparations did not escape the notice 
of the sailors, who knew by them that there was 
work to be done. It soon got abroad that Frank 
was at the head of the affair, and that set Lucas and 
Barton in ecstacies. This made them think of old 
times; and so eager were they for the fight, that 
they almost got up a row with Boson and Tully just 
to get their hands in. They did not neglect, too, 
to make sundry little arrangements with their com¬ 
panions in regard to the treatment the captain and 
first mate were to receive in case they were found 
among the prisoners. They would do their best to 
rescue the friends of Chips, but Captain Barclay 
should not come back to the ship, no matter what 
happened. All this, however, was upset by a 
simple order from their wide-awake leader, who 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


275 


seemed to see everything, know everything and who 
neglected nothing. 

The boats and weapons being in readiness, all the 
crew were ordered below to rest and sleep, except a 
boat-steerer’s w T atch, who remained on deck to look 
out for the ship. Even these were permitted to lie 
down on deck, with the exception of one man, whose 
duty it was to keep an eye on the shore, and report 
anything suspicious that he might see going on there. 

The men were allowed to sleep until nine o’clock, 
when they were called on deck to prepare for action. 
An abundant and well-cooked supper was served up 
and eagerly devoured by the grateful foremast 
hands, who told one another that if Captain Nelson 
and Mr. Gale were the officers of the ship, they’d 
never have any trouble with their crew, but they 
wouldn’t catch much grease. They’d feed their 
men so high that they would get too fat to see a 
spout or pull an oar. 

Supper over, the men were mustered on the 
quarter-deck to listen to Frank’s plan of the cam¬ 
paign. He had made up his mind what ought to be 


276 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


done and assigned each man a particular duty, giv¬ 
ing him his orders so plainly that there was no 
possible chance for a misunderstanding. One order 
was, that every hut in the village was to be set on 
fire—they wanted a light to fight by—but it must 
first be searched to make sure that it contained no 
prisoners. Some of the boats’ crews might be bound 
or severely wounded and unable to help themselves; 
and such unfortunates needed especial care and 
must be looked after by trustworthy men. If any 
wounded were discovered, they must be turned over 
to Lucas and Barton, who would assist them back 
to the boats and remain there to guard them. The 
men thus designated raised their hands to their caps 
and said, u Ay, ay, sir !” but when Frank turned to 
another sailor to give him his orders, they looked 
at each other and scowled fiercely. 

“ Now here’s a go,” muttered Barton. “ Sup¬ 
pose we find the first mate with a lance or some¬ 
thing through his leg ! Eh ?” 

“ Or the cap’n,” whispered Lucas, in great dis¬ 
gust. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


277 


“ Must we bring him to the boat, carry him like 
he was a blessed little baby, and then watch to 
see that the niggers don’t slip around and send 
him to Davy’s Locker, where he belongs?” added 
Barton. 

“ Them’s the orders.” 

“I don’t care. I won’t do it.” 

“ Avast, there ! Better not go agin orders when 
they come from him ,” whispered Lucas, jerking his 
thumb towards Frank. “ Besides, didn’t he say we 
was men as could be trusted ?” 

“ Ay, so he«did,” answered Barton, after think¬ 
ing a moment. “ So he did. We can’t go back on 
him after that.” 

Having given his instructions in the plainest lan¬ 
guage he was master of, Frank went back to the 
head of the line and made each man repeat what he 
had said to him, to make sure that he fully under¬ 
stood what was required, and then he distributed 
the weapons and ammunition. The Kanakas, 
although as eager for the fight as their white com¬ 
panions, declined to accept the muskets that were 


278 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


offered them, preferring to use the lances and war- 
clubs the natives had left behind them. It was a 
motley-looking company altogether, Frank told him¬ 
self, after they were all armed and stood awaiting 
his orders—very unlike the well-provided and well- 
disciplined bluejackets he had been accustomed to 
command on expeditions similar to this. 

Everything being in readiness, Frank nodded to 
Mr. Gale, who ordered the boats to be lowered away 
and the crews to tumble into them. Frank took 
every man, knowing that the natives would not 
attack the ship while their homes were in danger. 
When every one was in his place he clambered down 
into one of the boats, Mr. Gale having charge of 
the other, and led the way toward the beach. Ar¬ 
riving within a few rods of it the boats were brought 
to a stand still, and Chips slipped noiselessly into 
the water and struck out for the beach, accompanied 
by Lucas, who carried a blubber-knife between his 
teeth. Chips might have been astonished to know 
that Lucas had orders to use the blubber-knife at the 
very first sign of treachery. This was the secret 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


279 


the old boatswain's mate had been carrying all the 
afternoon. Frank believed the story Chips had 
told him, but he was so wary that he neglected no 
precautions to insure the success of the expedition 
and the safety of the men composing it. 

At the end of half an hour the two men made 
their appearance again, coming alongside so 
silently that Frank did not see them until they laid 
hold of the gunwale. They reported the coast 
clear. The natives, not dreaming of danger, were 
all at the village, going through some sort of a cere¬ 
mony intended to bring them success in the next 
attack they made on the ship, and which Chips said 
would not be delayed longer than daylight. Frank 
breathed easier now. Chips was not trying to lead 
him into an ambush, and that was one thing off his 
mind. 

Slowly and noiselessly the boats approached the 
shore, and when their bows touched the sand the 
crews disembarked. The two men selected to guard 
them promptly took their positions, and the rest 
fell in behind Chips, who led them along a narrow 


280 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


path through darkness so intense that Frank, who 
followed close at his heels, was obliged to take hold 
of his clothing in order to keep track of him. Ten 
minutes’ walk brought them within sight of a bright 
fire, which they could see shining through the trees 
in front of them. There they stopped. Frank 
whispered to the men as they came up one after 
another, showed them the position of the village, and 
they lost no time in taking up the positions he 
assigned them. When they had all moved off to 
the right and left, Frank, Mr. Gale and Chips 
were left alone. They waited and listened for a few 
minutes, and then moved down the path until they 
obtained a view of the fire. It was a large one, 
and threw out so much light that every hut in the 
village could be distinctly seen. There were about 
two hundred of the natives in sight, men, women 
and children, and some were seated in a circle about 
the fire, while others stood erect, looking intently 
toward the jungle where Frank knew the right of 
his line was taking up its position. Their quick 
ears warned them of the approach of an enemy. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


281 


At this moment Frank caught the gleam of a 
bayonet on the extreme left of the line. That told 
him that some of his men were in position, and he 
decided to begin operations at once. He nodded to 
his companions, and instantly three muskets were 
levelled and belched forth their contents in quick 
succession. This was the signal for the attack, and 
it was promptly obeyed. Muskets and pistols 
roared all along the line, and such a chorus of hoarse 
voices arose from the jungle that Frank, had he not 
known just how many men he had at his command, 
would have supposed that there was a small army 
hidden there. 

The natives behaved just as Chips said they 
would. The most of them took to their heels at 
once, while the bravest among them lingered long 
enough to fire their muskets. But they discharged 
them any how—just as they happened to pick them 
up—and Frank saw that the muzzles of the most 
of them were pointed into the air. No sooner were 
the weapons emptied than the owners threw them 
down and ran for life. 


282 


THE SPORTSMAN'S CLUB 


In two minutes’ time the sailors were all in the 
now deserted village, and two of the huts had been 
fired by Chips, who showed himself as active as a 
cat. He ran about with a fire-brand in each hand, 
calling loudly on the captives to make all haste to 
reach the beach, telling them they would find boats 
there and men to protect them. 

Frank remained in the centre of the line, so that 
he could see all that was going on and direct the 
movements of his men, and it was with no little 
satisfaction that he noted the care with which each 
member of his small company took to carry out the 
instructions given him. Frank did not see that any 
of the natives were killed, but he did see one 
prisoner rescued. He did not get a glimpse of his 
face or of his clothing, but a remark Lucas made 
as he and Barton carried him by in their arms, told 
him who it was. “ This ain’t such a nice piece of 
business as it might be, sir,” said the former, touch¬ 
ing his cap. 

“ It’s the captain,” thought Frank. “That was 
a lucky thought of mine, appointing two of his 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


283 


worst enemies to take care of kirn, for they wouldn’t 
injure him now for the world. He’s badly hurt, too. 
Will he act more like a man now, or be a worse 
tyrant than ever ?” 

In a very short space of time the whole village 
was in a blaze. The huts being built of bamboo 
and their cone-shaped roofs thatched with dry grass, 
they burned like so much tinder. There was noth¬ 
ing more to be done now—nothing more they could 
do. They had rescued one prisoner, given the 
others a chance to run if they were able to do it, 
and now he must take care of his own men before 
the natives turned on them. The signal to retreat, 
a long, shrill whistle, was as promptly obeyed as the 
signal to attack. The men hurried toward him, and 
throwing their weapons on their shoulders fell in 
behind Chips, who led the way toward the beach at 
a dog trot. Frank ran his eye over the line as it 
moved passed him to see if there was anybody miss¬ 
ing, and found to his delight that not only were the 
men all there, but also two more rescued prisoners, 
the captain’s harpooner and bow-oarsman, who 


284 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


saluted him as they went by. When the last man 
was in the path, Frank and Mr. Gale fell in and 
brought up the rear. A few minutes’ rapid run 
brought them to the beach, and after seeing the 
wounded captain stowed away as comfortably as 
circumstances would permit, Frank ordered the 
crews into the boats, which were pushed off toward 
the ship. There was no pursuit attempted, the 
natives being too badly frightened to rally immedi¬ 
ately. By the time their expected reinforcements 
arrived, the Tycoon was safe out of their reach. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


285 


CHAPTER XV. 


FRANK ON THE QUARTER-DECK. 


fJ^HE expedition was ended and well ended too, 
Frank told himself. Three men were rescued, 
and that was something to feel glad over. The 
attack was so well planned, and all the details 
carried out so faithfully and energetically, that it was 
entirely successful, and there was not a man missing. 
All the ship’s company could he accounted for 
except Gardner—Frank could not bring himself 
now to think of him by the name he generally bore 
—and he had doubtless been killed and thrown over¬ 
board when the natives made their attack on the 
vessel. 

While on the way back to the Tycoon Frank had 
much to think about, the principal object of his 
thoughts being the wounded captain. Frank was 


286 THE sportsman’s club 

sorry to see him in his present situation, and he 
reproached himself when he reflected that he had 
so long cherished feelings of revenge toward him. 
He had all the while told himself that his feelings 
were not actuated by any desire for vengeance— 
that he wanted to have the skipper shut up for a 
while, merely to prevent him from serving others as 
he had served himself; but now he knew that 
behind all this was the belief that the captain 
deserved punishment for the offences of which he 
had been guilty, and that he would breathe a good 
deal easier if he could assist in bringing it about. 
That was all past now, however. The skipper 
needed assistance, and that was enough for the 
generous Frank, who felt almost as tender toward 
him as he would have felt toward his cousin Archie, 
had he been in the same situation. 

Meanwhile an animated conversation was going 
on between Mr. Gale and Lucas, who were in the 
other boat with Barton, the coxswain. The third 
mate had been silent and thoughtful for a long time, 
and Lucas asked the reason for it. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


287 


“I was just thinking of what’s to come,” replied 
Mr. Gale. “ Here we have been risking our lives 
to free these men, and what are we going to do with 
them now that we have got them ?” 

“Take them aboard the ship, sir,” said Lucas. 

“ And what’s to be done with the ship ? The 
cap’n is of no use now, the first and second mates 
are gone, and so, of course, the ship falls to my 
hands; but she’s a bigger load than I can carry.” 

“Don’t worry about that, sir,” returned Lucas, 
quickly. “ Cap’n Nelson’s shoulders are broad, and 
he can carry her.” 

“Was he ever master of a vessel?” asked Mr. 
Gale. 

“ Of course he was, sir. Didn’t you know it ?” 

“ I heard something about it, but I didn’t believe 
it. He don’t look like a sailor.” 

“ No more’n he looks like a lawyer or a fighting 
man, sir; but he’s all three. When the war was 
going he commanded as fine a brig as ever sailed in 
Farragut’s fleet.” 

“ A brig !” echoed Barton. “ A ship, you mean. 


288 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Haven’t I seen her often ? Didn’t I see her and 
him too down there in Mobile Bay, the time we had 
the fight with the forts and gunboats? You’re 
right I did. The Admiral was going to put him in 
command of a frigate, only the war closed and Cap’n 
Nelson wouldn’t stay in the navy.” 

“I knew it was something of that kind,” said 
Lucas, who knew just nothing at all about it. He 
and Barton were working to put Frank on the Ty¬ 
coon’s quarter-deck, and they did not care how 
many falsehoods they told or what means they used 
to get him there. “ He went into a fight once 
and licked the rebels three to one,” continued 
Lucas. 

“ Five to one, you mean,” corrected Barton, 
who did not think his friend was saying quite as 
much as could be said in Frank’s favor. 

“I knew it was big odds,” returned Lucas, “and 
under them circumstances, sir, you mustn’t feel hard 
if we say that we won’t serve on the Tycoon under 
nobody but Cap’n Nelson.” 

“ I don’t feel hard toward you,” said the mate, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


289 


“ for I don’t want to command her. I am not 
fit.” 

“No more you be, sir,” said Barton, bluntly; 
“ but Oap’n Nelson is. We can call him cap’n 
now, and nobody can’t say no to us without getting 
bis bead broke.” 

Frank, little dreaming of what was passing in 
the other boat, was being carried rapidly ahead by 
the stalwart Kanakas who pulled him, and reached 
the ship a long distance in advance of Mr. Gale. 
As he came alongside he saw two men looking over 
the rail, both of whom Chips recognised, dark as it 
was. They proved to be two wrecked sailors who 
had been held prisoners by the natives, and who 
had taken advantage of the attack on the village 
to run to the beach and swim off to the vessel. 
They were overjoyed to find themselves among 
their own countrymen once more, and almost over¬ 
whelmed Frank by their exhibition of gratitude. 
But he had no time to listen to them. He simply 
shook hands with them, and then turned his atten¬ 
tion to the captain. 

19 


290 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


The wounded man groaned whenever any one 
touched him; but a whip being quickly rigged he 
was hoisted aboard as tenderly as possible, and in 
obedience to Frank’s directions was carried into the 
cabin and placed in his bunk. When the steward 
lighted the lamp Frank had a good view of him for 
the first time, and he could hardly bring himself to 
believe that this wreck of humanity was the same 
man he had so often seen on the quarter-deck. He 
was no surgeon, but knowing that something ought 
to be done at once to relieve the captain and stop 
the flow of blood, he set to work to do what he 
could. He cut off the sufferer’s coat and shirt with 
his knife, and found three gaping wounds, which 
were enough to have left the life out of any but a 
man of iron, as the captain was. While he was 
bathing them with warm water brought from the 
galley the third mate came in, and Frank was sur¬ 
prised to see him remove his hat. 

“ Is it necessary for me to apologize for coming 
in here under such circumstances as these, without 
an invitation ?” asked the amateur doctor. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


291 


“ I guess not, sir,” answered the officer, with a 
smile. “ From all I can learn you’ve got the best 
right here.” 

“How is that? I don’t understand you.” 

“ Why, the men have put you in as cap’n, and 
say they won’t do duty under anybody else.” 

“ Well, they have no right to do anything of the 
kind. They don’t know what they are talking 
about.” 

“ No, they don’t. I’m master of this ship,” 
murmured the wounded man, looking about with the 
old savage glare in his eyes and trying to raise his 
head. “ Trice ’em all up, and hang the snatch- 
block to their—Mr. Gale!” he ejaculated, recognis¬ 
ing the third mate. 

“Yes, sir; it’s Mr. Gale, come back safe and 
sound, and just as ready to do duty as he w T as 
before you turned him adrift in that boat,” replied 
the officer. 

“ Send the first mate here,” said the captain, 
sinking back on his pillow and closing his eyes. 

“ I can’t, sir. He went ashore with you and 


292 the sportsman’s club 

hasn’t come back yet. The natives made an end 
of him, most likely.” 

“ The second mate, then.” 

“ Can’t send him either, sir, because he and the 
first are keeping company now somewhere besides 
on board this ship. The natives harpooned him. 
There’s nobody left but me.” 

“ And you ain’t worth nothing. You don’t know 
how to flog a man.” 

“ If I did, I couldn’t do it now, sir. The men 
have taken the ship and put Cap’n Nelson in com¬ 
mand. I looked for ’em to do it long ago.” 

“Nelson!” groaned the captain, opening his eyes 
again. “I sent him-” 

He seemed to recognise the face bending over 
him, and stopped suddenly. 

“I know you did, sir,” said Mr. Gale, “You 
sent him adrift with me; but he’s back again, and 
so are Lucas and Barton and all the rest of the 
boat’s crew. But I say, cap’n, if you are able to 
do duty, you’d best be giving some orders, for the 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


293 


tide is about turning, and if the ship is to be worked 
off the bar, now’s the time.” 

The captain made no reply, and neither could 
Mr. Gale induce him to speak again. He lay with 
his eyes closed, and groaned every time a question 
was asked him. The mate scratched his head in 
great perplexity. “ What shall I do, sir ?” said 
he, looking at Frank. 

“Do just what you think best,” was the reply. 
“ This man is in no condition to give orders. Go 
ahead on your own hook.” 

The mate clapped his hat on his head and hur¬ 
ried up the ladder. He found the crew gathered 
in the waist waiting, no doubt, to hear from some 
one in the cabin. “ Turn to, lads,” said Mr. Gale, 
briskly. “ Bear a hand, and get up that small 
kedge for’ard.” 

“ Who give them orders, sir, begging your pardon 
for being curious ?” said Lucas. “ Did Cap’n Bar¬ 
clay or Cap’n Nelson ?” 

“ Cap’n Nelson,” replied the mate. “ Cap’n Bar¬ 
clay ain’t fit to command now.” 


294 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“No more was he ever fit to command, sir!” said 
Lucas, who was speaking for all of the men. “ But, 
asking your pardon again, sir, I’d just like to have 
a peep at Cap’n Nelson, and see why he don’t come 
up and give his own orders, like the master of a ship 
had ought to do. You know that he went into that 
cabin once and didn’t come out again very soon, 
don’t you ? We don’t think as much of you, by no 
means, as we did before you had a hand in that 
business.” 

The mate made no reply. He had set himself 
right with Frank, who was perfectly satisfied that 
he was not to blame for anything that had happened, 
and he would leave him to make the matter straight 
with the men. He stepped aside to allow Lucas to 
pass, and the latter, running down the companion- 
ladder, was amazed to find Frank acting the part of 
Good Samaritan to one whom he had hitherto re¬ 
garded as an enemy. He opened his eyes wide at 
the sight, aud Frank thought he was displeased. 
“It’s all time wasted, sir,” said he. 

“Well, we must do the very best we can for 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


295 


him,” was Frank’s reply. “ If he can only hold 
out till we .fall in with some ship carrying a surgeon, 
he will perhaps pull through all right.” 

“ Did you give orders to have the ship worked 
off the bar, cap’n ?” asked the boatswain’s mate. 

“ We want to get her off, don’t we?” answered 
Frank. “ She musn’t lie here and be pounded to 
pieces, as she will be if the wind rises.” 

Lucas went out of the cabin satisfied. He knew 
what ought to be done as well as anybody, but he 
wanted to be sure that the orders came from the 
right source. The men were satisfied too, and went to 
work to get the ship out of her dangerous situation, 
while Frank kept busy with his patient, although he 
believed, with Lucas, that his efforts to save the 
captain’s life would be useless. He had nothing to 
work with—no lint or bandages, and no medicine to 
allay the fever. But the sequel proved that Frank 
did not know what the old sailor meant by his 
remark. The wounded skipper was threatened by 
another danger from which no one on board the 


296 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


Tycoon but Frank could protect him—the fury of 
the men he had wronged. 

At the end of two hours the Tycoon was in deep 
water and standing away from the inhospitable Isl¬ 
ands with all her canvas spread. Frank had been 
equally successful with the work to w T hich he had 
devoted himself, and now the captain was in a sound 
sleep. While Frank stood watching him, wonder¬ 
ing what was to be done when he awoke, since there 
were no medicines aboard except calomel and salts, 
nothing to eat except coarse ship’s fare, and noth¬ 
ing to drink but the miserable stuff called tea and 
coffee which the cook served up twice each day 
—while Frank was thinking about this, and wish¬ 
ing he could get inside the Stranger’s pantry long 
enough to secure some of the delicacies he knew to be 
stowed away there, he was aroused by a great hub¬ 
bub which suddenly arose on deck. He heard the 
stamping of feet and loud yells of triumph, mingled 
with cries of, “ Here’s one of ’em. Pitch him 
overboard !” A moment later the mate’s voice was 
heard in tones of remonstrance, to which some one 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


297 


replied : “ If you don’t go aft where you belong and 
mind your own business, you’ll go over too!” 

Mr. Gale evidently thought that the man, who¬ 
ever he was that said this, was in earnest, for Frank 
heard him running along the deck, and saw his pale 
face' appear at the top of the companion ladder. 
“ Come up, cap’n,” he cried, in great excitement; 
“ the men are going to throw Calamity overboard !” 

Frank lingered just long enough to slap his 
pockets, to make sure that the pistols he had carried 
during the attack on the village were still there, and 
then went up the stairs in three jumps. He saw a 
group of men in the waist, who were pushing and 
crowding one another about, and caught just one 
glimpse of the pale face of Gardner, who was in the 
midst of them, and resisting to the utmost the efforts 
that were being made to drag him to the side. He 
saw at a glance that Boson and Tully were the 
ringleaders, and the ones who had seized the fright¬ 
ened man; and he was sorry to see, too, that Lucas 
and Barton were there and making no effort to 
restrain their companions, although they took no 


298 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


part in the proceeding. The peaceable Kanakas 
were standing in a body on the forecastle and look¬ 
ing on in great amazement. 

With three jumps more Frank was in the waist, 
standing between the men and the rail, and Mr. 
Gale was at his side. “ Lucas ! Barton !” he cried, 
“ come over to this side the deck.” 

“ Why, cap’n?” began Lucas. 

“No words,” interrupted Frank. “You and 
Barton come over to this side of the deck, and be 
quick about it.” 

The sailors obeyed, and the change in their posi¬ 
tions seemed to make a corresponding change in 
their feelings, for the next order Frank gave was 
responded to without an instant’s hesitation. 
“ Lucas, take hold of Boson. Barton, grab Tully 
and drag him away. Gardner, go into the cabin !” 

It was wonderful how quickly and easily one 
calm, determined spirit controlled those angry men. 
The trouble was ended at once. Boson let go his 
hold and slunk away at the sight of Lucas’s big fist, 
which was brandished before his eyes, and Tully 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


299 


was equally active in giving ground before the 
broad-shouldered Barton. Gardner, finding himself 
at liberty, went down the companion-ladder like a 
flash, banging the door behind him. 

“I am surprised at you, men,” said Frank, 
sternly, and there was not one among them who 
could look him in the eye. u If you had succeeded 
in accomplishing your object, what would you have 
said for yourselves when you got ashore ? Boson, 
you. are the largest and strongest man in the crew. 
Take your stand at the top of that ladder and knock 
the first one down who attempts to go into the 
cabin without Mr. Gale’s permission.” 

This stroke of policy on Frank’s part won him a 
fast friend on the spot—one who might otherwise 
have been an enemy, and kept the crew in a constant 
uproar. He was a turbulent fellow, this Boson, 
and one of the few sailors Frank had met who 
seemed to need a handspike or belaying-pin over 
his head about once a day to keep him in order. 
His appearance was enough to frighten some men, 
and was a good index of his character. He had a 


300 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


most repulsive countenance, a small bullet-shaped 
head, always kept closely cropped and set on a 
thick, muscular neck, and a form betokening im¬ 
mense physical power. And indeed he possessed 
it. He could handle an eighteen-foot oar as if it 
were a feather, and when he laid out his strength, 
he fairly made things snap. His whole body was 
seamed and scarred by wounds he had received in 
fights and from the officers he had sailed under, and 
Frank had seen him knocked flat with a handspike 
which seemed to make no more impression on his 
thick skull than it would on the mast. This was 
the man of whom Frank had been wise enough to 
make a friend. 

Boson looked at him in amazement, evidently at 
a loss to decide whether Frank was in earnest or 
not; but making up his mind at last that he was, 
he marched off, and taking the position assigned 
him, looked defiantly at the crew, as if daring them 
to come on. 

Frank was surprised at the ease with which the 
disturbance had been quelled, and so was Mr. Gale. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


301 


It leaked out afterward that the former’s prompt 
action had prevented serious trouble. Lucas made 
no idle threat when he said that the captain and 
Calamity were both to go overboard. The latter 
had been hiding in the hold among the oil barrels. 
He went there when he saw the natives approach¬ 
ing to make their attack on the ship, and no one 
missed him until the fight was over, and the sailors 
began to look around to see how many they had 
lost. Not finding Calamity among the slain, they 
concluded that he had either jumped overboard, or 
been wounded and thrown over; but he had been 
safely concealed in the hold all the while. Finding 
at last that the ship was in motion, he came out of 
his hiding-place to see what was going on, and must 
have been astonished at the reception extended to 
him. After he had been disposed of, the skipper’s 
turn was to come next. The desperate men counted 
on meeting with opposition and perhaps resistance 
from Mr. Gale and Frank, but expected to over¬ 
come it very easily. They knew Mr. Gale, but 
found they did not know Frank. Had the latter 



302 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


been as easily cowed as the third mate was, some¬ 
thing certainly would have happened. 

Quiet being restored, Mr. Gale and Frank walked 
aft together, and the crew seeing them in earnest 
conversation, leaned over the rail and waited to learn 
what would come next. “ I suppose the first busi¬ 
ness is to decide who we want for officers,” said 
Frank. 

“ I suppose so, sir,” replied Mr. Gale. 

“ You are entitled to the captain’s berth, of course. 
That’s settled.” 

“ No it ain’t, sir,” returned the mate, quickly. 
“ This is the first voyage I ever made as an officer, 
and I know no more about navigation than I do 
about the moon.” 

“ Then let me act as your sailing-master.” 

“ The men won’t agree to it, sir. They said so.” 

Then the mate went on to repeat the conversation 
that had taken place between Lucas, Barton and 
himself, at which Frank laughed heartily. “ Why 
they are very much mistaken,” said he. “ The 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


303 


largest sailing vessel I ever commanded was a 
pleasure yacht.” 

“ No odds, sir. They’ve got it in their heads 
that you must command them now that the old man 
is done for, and there’ll be a row if you don’t. 
You have seen what they are when they get 
started.” 

“Then I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” said Frank, 
after thinking a moment. “ We’ll leave it to them; 
and after they have selected their officers we’ll draw 
up a paper containing a full history of everything 
that has happened since leaving Honolulu, and ask 
them to sign it. These matters must be looked into 
by the consul, and we want to be all right in law, 
you know.” 

In accordance with this suggestion, the mate 
mustered the men on the quarter-deck and made 
them a little speech. He told them that there must 
be somebody at the head of affairs, and that as the 
officers were all gone except himself, others must 
be selected. In the first place they must all agree 
to be bound by the decision of the majority, and 


304 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


faithfully promise to obey those placed over 
them. 

“ We’ll all obey Cap’n Nelson,” exclaimed Boson, 
before the mate was fairly done speaking. 

“Yes, Cap’n Nelson! Cap’n Nelson!” cried a 
chorus of hoarse voices. “ Nobody else !” 

There was not a dissenting voice ; so Frank could 
no longer refuse to accept the responsibility. He 
was amused to see that Lucas and Barton, while 
supporting Boson’s nomination, looked savagely at 
him, as if they would have been glad to knock him 
down for speaking in such a hurry. They wanted 
to bring Frank forward themselves. 

“ Cap’n Nelson, I give place to you, sir,” said 
Mr. Gale. 

The men greeted the young commander with 
cheers as he stepped forward, no doubt expecting 
him to make them a speech ; but Frank did nothing 
of the kind. He told them that the next business 
was to select a first mate, and at his suggestion Mr. 
Gale was chosen by a unanimous vote. Lucas was 
put in for second, and Boson, who was a fine sailor, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


305 


if he was a quarrelsome fellow, for third mate ; and 
when the men were dismissed every one of them 
seemed satisfied. 

Frank at once went below to look at his patient, 
leaving Mr. Gale in charge of the deck. The cap¬ 
tain lay with his eyes closed, rolling his head from 
side to side, and Calamity was fanning him with 
his hat. The latter started up in alarm as Frank 
entered. 

“ It is no one who is going to harm you,” 
said he. “ I hope you see now what you have 
brought upon yourself by your way of doing busi¬ 
ness. Let it be a lesson to you.” 

“ I shall never dare to go into the forecastle 
again,” whined Calamity. 

“ You needn’t go in there. You will stay here 
as the captain’s nurse.” 

This order seemed to relieve the frightened man. 
Through the open skylights he had heard all that 
passed on deck, and he was afraid that Frank, 
having the authority to do so, would order him to 

go forward where he belonged. 

20 


306 THE sportsman’s club 

Frank slept but little that night. The responsi¬ 
bilities of his new position weighed on his mind, and 
he came on deck every hour to see that things were 
going straight. The first real duty he performed as 
captain was to ascertain whereabouts in the wide 
world the ship was, and this he did the next day by 
an observation. She was directly in the track of 
vessels bound from Australia to the Pacific ports 
of the United States, and he decided to cruise about 
for a few days in the hope of meeting some ship 
that carried a surgeon. Without medical assistance 
he was afraid that the captain might not live until 
the ship reached Honolulu, which, according to his 
calculations, was more than fifteen hundred miles 
distant. 

The observation made, dinner over and the table 
cleared away, Frank busied himself for an hour or 
two in drawing up papers for the men to sign; and 
when that was done, he took a few minutes to think 
over the various incidents that had operated to 
place him in his present position. The most exact¬ 
ing old sea-dog could hardly have found fault with 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


307 


the way affairs were going now. The weather-side 
of the quarter-deck was reserved for the captain, 
who for an hour paced up and down there with his 
hands behind his hack, and as free from intrusion 
as a monarch on his throne. The officers were alert 
and watchful, the crew seemed to have settled down 
to the new order of things as if they had been 
accustomed to them all their lives, and never in her 
best days under her old commander had the Tycoon 
looked more ship-shape. Frank wished the crew 
had put Mr. Gale in his place, and left him to act 
as sailing-master; but since they had seen fit to do 
differently, he would perform his duty as best he 
could. He knew every rope and sail in the ship, 
was possessed of excellent judgment, which was the 
one great thing needed, and the captain’s sextant 
came as handy to him as a fishing-rod or double- 
barrel; so he was not so very unfit for the position 
he held after all. How Archie and the rest of the 
friends he had left on the Stranger would open their 
eyes if they could see him in that dress and know 
that he was the master of that fine ship! For the 


308 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


first time in a long while Frank allowed his thoughts 
to wander hack to them, and the consequence was 
he became homesick. Yes, homesick; for the 
cabin of the Stranger had been his home for almost 
eight months, and had he kept out of the way of 
the bogus captain, it might have been his home yet. 
Where was the schooner now, and what were those 
aboard of her doing? Perhaps she was sailing 
about over the Pacific in search of the Tycoon! 
This thought aroused Frank from his reverie, and 
caused him to straighten up and look about as if he 
expected to see something. If the Stranger fol¬ 
lowed the Tycoon to the Sandwich Islands, would 
not Uncle Dick ascertain when he got there that 
she had shipped a crew and started for the Japan 
station ? And would he not sail again immediately 
and try to find her ? 

“Sail ho!” shouted the man at the masthead. 
“Where away?” demanded the captain, greatly 
excited. 

“ Two points off the lee bow, sir. Steamer.” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


309 


“Dear me ! why did he say steamer ?” thought 
Frank. “ I’d rather he’d have said topsail schooner.” 

No doubt he would, especially if the schooner 
proved to be the Stranger. Still he was glad to 
know that there was a steamer near, for he would 
be relieved of one cause of anxiety if he could only 
intercept her. He would bring her doctor aboard, 
and perhaps he could do something for the captain. 


810 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


CHAPTER XYI 

CONCLUSION. 

JpRANK went aloft with his glass, and after 
watching the steamer for a few minutes made 
up his mind that if he held on his way she would 
cross his path at such a distance that he could not 
speak her; so he altered the Tycoon’s course a few 
points, and for several miles ran almost parallel 
with the approaching craft. This manoeuvre was 
successful, and by sunset the two vessels were 
within hailing distance. After seeing one of the 
boats cleared for lowering and the crew ready to 
tumble into her, Frank came to while the steamer 
was yet a half a mile away ; and this attracting the 
attention of her captain, he ran under a slow bell 
until within speaking distance, when he stopped his 
engines. His vessel was a fine large mail steamer, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


811 


and her promenade deck was crowded with pas¬ 
sengers. 

“ Steamer ahoy!” yelled Frank, through his 
trumpet. “ Will you wait for me to send a boat 
aboard of you ? We are in need of medical assist¬ 
ance.” 

A reply in the affirmative promptly came back, 
and five minutes afterward a whale-boat, manned by 
a sturdy crew steered by Frank, was pulling toward 
the steamer. 

Up to this time Frank’s mind was fully occupied 
with thoughts of the wounded captain; but now it 
occurred to him that he was not in just the right 
dress to present himself before a company of ladies 
and gentlemen. Clothed in a red shirt, coarse 
trowsers, heavy boots, all plentifully spattered with 
oil, a tarpaulin, which, although but a short time out 
of the slop-chest, began to show signs of wear, and 
with hands and face browned by exposure, he was 
not the most attractive looking young man in the 
world, and he thought he looked worse when in the 
presence of the dapper young officer who met him 


312 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


at the gangway. The well-dressed people on deck 
gave him plenty of room as he walked along, but the 
gray-headed captain came forward and greeted him 
cordially. “ What did you say you wanted, sir ?” 
said he. “A doctor?” 

“ Yes, sir. There’s a man aboard that ship in a 
critical condition. We had some trouble with the 
natives at the Mangrove Islands, and he’s badly 
wounded.” 

A chorus of ejaculations and questions arose from 
the passengers who crowded eagerly forward, and 
Frank could have told his story to a most attentive 
and interested audience if he had only had time; 
but the captain sent off at once for the surgeon, who 
made his appearance before he was fairly begun. 
To him Frank described the nature of the captain’s 
injuries as well as he could, and when he had heard 
all Frank could tell him, he provided himself with 
medicine and instruments, got into the whale-boat 
and was taken on board the Tycoon. He remained 
there nearly three hours—so long that some of the 
gentlemen among the steamer’s passengers became 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


313 


impatient at the delay, called on Frank for a boat, 
and came off to see what the “ blubber-hunter” 
looked like. The young captain met them as they 
came over the side, and was amused at the look of 
astonishment that settled on their faces when they 
found themselves fairly on her deck. 

“Why, if I had known that you kept your craft 
as neat as this, I should have brought my wife and 
daughter along,” said one of the gentlemen, running 
his finger over the rail and closely examining it to 
make sure that there was no oil on it. “ I expected 
to find myself knee-deep in grease. I have seen 
whalers come into port before now, and they were 
such horrible looking things outside, that I supposed 
they could not be very tidy on deck.” 

“ They are not always, sir,” said Frank, “ espe¬ 
cially when they are cutting in and trying out. They 
often spend eight months and more out of sight of 
land, and the men are so busy with other work that 
they can’t find time to keep the ship as neat and 
trim as a merchantman or man-of-war.” 

The visitors having satisfied themselves that they 


314 THE sportsman’s club 

were in no danger of soiling their good clothes, be¬ 
gan to exhibit a lively interest in what they saw 
about them. Frank showed them over the ship, 
explained the use of the try-works, harpoons, lances 
and all the other implements connected with a 
whaler’s calling, and related the particulars of the 
fight they had had with the natives at the Mangrove 
Islands; and so engrossed did his listeners become 
that they were sorry when the doctor came out of 
the cabin and announced that he was ready to de¬ 
part. He told Frank what he had done for the 
wounded man, and said that, although he was so 
badly used up that it might take him some months 
to fully recover from the effects of his injuries, there 
were no bones broken, and his life was in no 
danger, if the remedies he left for him were faith¬ 
fully administered according to the directions he 
had given the captain’s attendant. The doctor and 
the passengers were then taken on board their ves¬ 
sel by one of the whale-boats, and when it re¬ 
turned and was hoisted at the davits, the Tycoon 
filled away for the Sandwich Islands. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


315 


It was wonderful what a change the doctor’s visit 
made in the wounded man ! He seemed to grow 
better immediately. Frank found him in earnest 
conversation with Calamity. When it was ended 
the latter came out with the request that Mr. Gale 
might be sent to the captain when he was off duty, 
if Frank had no objection. Of course he had none. 
The first mate was sent for at once, and remained 
in conversation with the captain for more than an 
hour. When he came out he went straight to 
Frank, who was pacing the quarter-deck. “ How 
is he now ?” asked the latter. 

“ 0, he’s all right that is, his tongue is as lively 
as ever. He wants me to act as mediator between 
you and him.” 

“ There is no occasion for it,” answered Frank. 
“ There are no hard feelings on my part.” 

“ I was sure of it, sir. Calamity has told him 
everything, and he would be perfectly satisfied with 
the way matters have been arranged, if it wasn’t 
for the fear that you helped rescue him from the 
natives, and brought the doctor off to save his life, 


316 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


so that you might have the chance to take him be¬ 
fore the court at Honolulu.” 

“ Perhaps if he knew me better he would not 
have so poor an opinion of me,” returned Frank. 
“ I don’t deny that if I could have got him there 
two days ago, I should have made trouble for him. 
Indeed I told him so to his face. But that is all 
over now.” 

“He has been punished enough, hasn’t he, sir ?” 

“ I think he has. You may assure him for me, 
in the plainest language you can command, that I 
shall not trouble him in any way. On the contrary, 
I will do what I can to make him comfortable.” 

“ I’ll tell him, sir. He wanted me to ask two 
favors of you: one is, that you will put him on 
board the first ship you meet bound for the States. 
He’s afraid of the men, sir. Calamity told him 
that they were going to throw him overboard.” 

“ He has nothing to fear from them, but I’ll re¬ 
spect his wishes all the same. What else does he 
want me to do ?” 

“ He hopes that while you are looking out for a sail, 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


317 


you will keep an eye open for whales and lose no 
chance for filling up. We stow twenty-five hundred 
barrels, and here we have been out nearly seventeen 
months and haven’t taken a quarter of that quan¬ 
tity. It looks now as though we were not going to 
make a paying voyage.” 

“ I’ll do the best I can,” replied Frank. 

And he did. The ship lay-to that night with 
only a boat-steerer’s watch on deck, and the next 
morning business began in earnest. A whale was 
discovered before breakfast, and three boats in 
command of Mr. Gale, Lucas and Boson were sent 
out after him, Frank remaining in charge of the 
ship. The prize was secured without much trouble, 
and while it was lying alongside, and the men, hav¬ 
ing prepared themselves for work by eating a good 
breakfast, were about to begin the cutting in, 
another was raised, and by three o’clock that also 
was alongside, and the carpenter was at work on a 
stove boat. This whale fought hard, but there was 
nobody hurt. 

This was only the beginning. The blubber-room 


318 


THE SPOKTSMAN’S CLUB 


■was never entirely empty, and during the next three 
weeks four hundred barrels of oil were added to 
those in the hold. Of course the labor was severe, 
the crew being small, but the men had plenty to 
eat, were kindly treated and the amount of work 
they turned off was surprising. Calamity kept the 
captain posted in all that was going on, and he 
growled lustily—being an old sailor he couldn’t 
help it—and wondered why he had not been blessed 
with such luck, and why the crew had not worked 
as well for him as they did for the new captain. 

One bright morning, following a hard night’s 
work at trying-out, while Frank was leaning over 
a water-bucket, rubbing his hands and face with a 
piece of hard soap, the man at the masthead 
announced that there was a sail in sight, and in 
response to the usual inquiry, added : “ Broad off 
the wheather beam. Topsail schooner. Sets low 
in the water and spreads lots of canvas.” 

“ Do you hear that, Lucas ?” cried Frank, gazing 
about through eyes that were almost hidden in soap 
suds. “ Jump up there, quick 1” 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


319 


The latter cleared his eyes by the aid of a piece 
of canvas that served him for a towel, and watched 
the movements of the old boatswain’s mate as he 
hurried aloft. He saw him level his glass, hold it 
to his eye for a moment and then begin to scramble 
down again. That was enough for Frank. “ Mr. 
Gale,” said he, so delighted and excited that he 
could hardly stand still, “ my connection with the 
Tycoon is nearly ended now. My friends are close 

ty-” 

“ I am glad for your sake, sir, and sorry for my 
own,” replied the mate. “ We’ve had a pleasant 
ship and the best of luck since you’ve been on the 
quarter-deck.” 

“ And I have been very well contented,” said 
Frank ; “but I wasn’t while I was in the forecastle, 
I tell you. It isn’t often that a shanghaied man 
becomes master of the ship that runs away with 
him, is it ?” 

“ I never heard the like before, sir.” 

“ And probably you never will again. Well, 
Lucas!” 


820 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


“ It’s the Stranger, sir ! I can tell her among a 
million !” replied the second mate, no less delighted 
than his captain. 

“ Breakfast is on, sir,” announced the steward. 

Frank did not want any, hut he made a show of 
eating nevertheless. He drank a cup or two of a 
decoction of parched beans which the steward called 
coffee, swallowed a few mouthfuls of salt horse and 
hard-tack, and then hurried on deck to tell the 
officer on watch to see one of the boats clear for 
lowering, and to have a crew, whom he mentioned 
by name, ready to pull him off to the schooner. 
After that he gave his black suit a good overhaul¬ 
ing ; but it had seen pretty hard service before he 
drew any clothing from the slop-chest, and he de¬ 
cided that it would not do to put on. Then he took 
a look at himself in the little mirror that was 
screwed fast to one of the bulkheads in the cabin, 
and told himself that Boson w T as a beauty compared 
to him. 

“Well, what’s the difference?” thought Frank. 
“ If any of those boys had been in my boots they 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


821 


would look just as rough and weather-beaten as 1 
do” 

With this reflection to console him Frank hurried 
on deck again, and taking the glass Lucas offered 
him, levelled it at the schooner, which was now 
close aboard. Almost the first man he saw was 
Dick Lewis. Frank’s heart leaped at the sight 
of him. He had supposed that the two trap¬ 
pers were safe in the mountains long before this 
time, but now he would have a chance to shake 
them by the hand once more before he bade them 
good-by for ever. He wondered how they had con¬ 
quered their fears sufficiently to venture out to sea. 
He saw Uncle Dick Gaylord and his two officers on 
the quarter-deck, and the Club gathered in the 
waist, every one of them with his field-glass in his 
hand. 

“ Of course they will recognise the ship, but they 
will never know me in this dress,” thought Frank. 
“ And I don’t think they’ll be able to make much 
out of my hail either.” 

Frank kept out of sight until the ship’s main 
21 


322 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


yard was backed and the schooner thrown up into 
the wind; then he showed himself. 

“What ship is that?” yelled a stentorian voice, 
that Frank could have recognised anywhere. 

“ The whale ship Eli Coon, Hank Wilson master. 
Seventeen months out of Nantucket and nine hun¬ 
dred barrels of oil in the hold. I think that 
bothered them a little, Mr. Gale. I see they are 
talking very earnestly. Is that crew ready ? I’ll 
send a boat aboard of you,” he added, hailing the 
schooner. 

“Ay, ay, sir!” answered Uncle Dick, in a tone 
of voice which indicated that he did not understand 
the matter at all. 

Lucas, Barton, Boson and Tully, all good oars¬ 
men, comprised the boat’s crew, and they were not 
long in taking their captain alongside the schooner. 
Seeing that the Club and Uncle Dick kept their 
glasses levelled at him, Frank drew his hat low over 
his forehead, and thanked the wind for turning the 
collar of his shirt up around his ears. He laughed 
to himself when he thought how amazed his friends 




























Pd A vir nuncF V flAPTATW m? tup Tvpaav 











































































































































































































































































AMONG THE WHALERS. 


323 


would be to see him in those clothes and learn that 
he was the captain of the Tycoon—he who had 
been shanghaied and thrust into her forecastle to 
do duty as a common sailor! He thought he could 
have some sport with the schooner’s company, and 
run no risk of being recognised. After comparing 
his reckoning with Uncle Dick’s, he would slap the 
boys on the back and take all sorts of liberties 
with them, and see what they would do about it. 
But Dick Lewis upset all these calculations in short 
order. His sharp eyes penetrated Frank’s disguise, 
and no sooner did his head appear above the 
schooner’s rail than he was hauled aboard, lifted 
bodily from the deck and carried aft. He struggled 
hard to free himself, but the trapper held him fast, 
and finally stood him on his feet in front of 
Uncle Dick, just as he had done with the bogus 
captain. 

“ What do you mean ?” demanded Frank, in a 
gruff voice. “If this is the way you treat your 
visitors, sir, I’ll go back where I belong!” 

Uncle Dick stared at Frank, who tried to look 


824 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


angry, but bis eyes laughed in spite of himself. 
“Nelson!” he exclaimed, at a venture. 

“ That’s jest who he are, cap’n,” cried the 
trapper, bringing his heavy hand down on Frank’s 
shoulder with such force that he shook all over. 
“ Whiskers and all, that’s him.” 

It was all out now, and Frank’s little plan was 
exposed. Of course a great hubbub arose at once, 
and Frank judged by the greeting he received that 
his friends were just as glad to see him as he was to 
see them. Lucas and Barton met with an equally 
cordial reception from their friends in the forecastle, 
who were not a little surprised to find that one of 
them had worked his way to the quarter-deck during 
his absence. 

Frank had a long story to tell, and it took him 
a long time to tell it. When it was ended, Uncle 
Dick and the Club had a good many questions to 
ask, and it took a long time to answer them; so 
that the two vessels remained alongside the greater 
part of the day. During that time boat’s crews 
were exchanged, some of the schooner’s company 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


325 


going off to visit the ship, and some of her crew 
coming back to visit the Stranger. 

As soon as the conversation began to flag Frank 
spoke of the needs of the wounded captain, asking 
for some of the good things with which the Stranger 
was so amply provided ; but Uncle Dick had some¬ 
thing better to propose. “ Write an order to your 
mate to send him off here,” said he. “ I have a 
medicine-chest, plenty of lint and bandages, and 
long experience has made me a passable physician 
and surgeon. I can take better care of him than 
you can, and perhaps he will feel easier when he is 
out of reach of his men.” 

Frank was only too glad to accept this kind offer, 
for he knew that the wounded man would be bene¬ 
fited by the change. He sent off an order to Mr. 
Gale, and half an hour afterward Captain Barclay 
was comfortably settled in the Stranger’s cabin. 
He was delighted with his elegant quarters, and 
repeatedly declared that he did not deserve the 
treatment he received. If he was ever able to take 


326 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


the quarter-deck again he would be a different 
man. 

His story told and all questions asked and 
answered, the young captain made ready to return 
to his ship. Of course all the boys went with him. 
Frank warned them that he could not give them 
such food or such quarters as they had on board the 
Stranger, but they didn’t care for that. They 
wanted to see the Tycoon, and they made Frank 
promise, over and over again, that if the opportunity 
were offered, he would show them the operation of 
catching a whale. The Club tried to induce the 
trappers to go with them, but their entreaties and 
arguments fell on deaf ears. Dick and Bob knew 
that the Stranger was a safe boat, but they did not 
like to trust the Tycoon, and so thought it best to 
remain where they were. 

“Brace for’ard main yard,” said Frank, when 
all the whaler’s boats had been hoisted at the davits. 
6i Eugene, you said you couldn’t understand how it 
came that you reached the Sandwich Islands three 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


327 


days after we did. Now I’ll show you. Set stud¬ 
ding sails, Mr. Gale.” 

Eugene very soon found out why it was. The 
Stranger was considered to be remarkably swift for 
a small vessel, but the big Tycoon sailed two miles 
to her one, and at daylight the next morning the 
schooner was out of sight. 

Frank being impatient to reach Honolulu, did 
not go out of his way to find whales. According to 
promise he kept the mast-head manned, but to no 
purpose. The boys watched and waited in the hope 
of hearing the welcome cry, “There she blows!” 
but not a whale was to be seen. Mr. Gale told 
them that the reason was because they offered no 
inducement. It was the practice of whalers under 
such circumstances as these, he said, to put up a 
prize of some kind to go to the man who discovered 
the first spout. He had known a whale to rise in 
less than two minutes after a pair of trowsers had 
been hung up in the rigging. 

“ 0, if that’s the trouble, we’ll raise so many 


328 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


that you won’t know which to go after first,” said 
Archie; “who’s got any money?” 

All the boys happened to have a little in their 
pockets, and by clubbing together they raised suffi¬ 
cient to purchase one of the best suits of clothing 
in the slop-chest—hat, boots and all—which was 
hung up in plain view of the crew. But the offer 
of a dozen suits would not have enabled the men to 
see whales where there were none, and Frank took 
the ship into Honolulu without having the opportu¬ 
nity to gratify his friends, who were greatly dis¬ 
appointed. The Stranger was not in port, but she 
came shortly afterward, and by that time the Ty¬ 
coon’s business was settled. She passed through 
the consul’s hands, the crew were paid off and dis¬ 
charged and a new captain assumed command and 
made ready to take her to the States. As soon as 
the Stranger came in, Uncle Dick’s charge was car¬ 
ried to the hospital, and Frank never heard of him 
afterward. He never heard of Mr. Gale either 
after he took leave of him. The last time he saw 
him he was second mate of the Tycoon. 


AMONG THE WHALERS. 


329 


One incident happened on board the Stranger 
that is worth recording. It was noticed that after 
Captain Barclay was brought on board, Dick Lewis 
acted more like himself than he had done for many 
a day. 

It was observed, too, that he often went through 
a most expressive pantomime, which was easily 
understood by those who witnessed it. One morn¬ 
ing the captain came out of his cabin and found 
him standing at the top of the companion ladder, 
where he had been often seen of late. “Why 
do you hang around here so much?” asked Uncle 
Dick. 

The trapper pushed his hat on the back of his 
head, shoved up his sleeves until his brawny arms 
were bare to the elbow, spread out his feet, placed 
his hands on his hips and looked at the captain. 
“When is that mean varmint cornin’ up ?” said he. 
“ I owe him a leetle something, an’ I’m in an amaz¬ 
in’ hurry to pay it !” 

“ Now, Lewis, you needn’t worry about him,” 
said Uncle Dick. “ He’s having as much punish- 


830 


THE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB 


ment as he can stand. Frank heaped hot coals 
of fire on his head every day for three weeks, and 
I am following up the same treatment.” 

“Sho!” exclaimed the trapper, looking doubt¬ 
fully at Captain Gaylord. 

“ It is as true as gospel.” 

Dick could not refuse to believe it after so strong 
an affirmation as this. He grinned all over with 
delight, and taking the sailor’s sturdy palm in his 
long, bony fingers, gave it a shake and a squeeze 
that made the captain wince and lift one of his feet 
a little way from the deck. Then Dick hurried off 
to find his chum. 

“ It’s all right, Bob,” said he, gleefully. “ I 
didn’t know civilized folks done sich things, but the 
cap’n’s scalpin’ that feller in a way the Injuns 
never thought of. He’s pilin’ fire on his head 
every day.” 

This piece of news, while it greatly surprised both 
the trappers, afforded them the liveliest satisfaction. 
The kidnapper was being fearfully punished for 
what he had done, and they told one another that 


AMONG THE WHALERS 


831 


he deserved it. Dick did not Hang around the cabin 
door any more, but he kept his eyes open, and as he 
never saw any fire carried below, he began to grow 
suspicious. 

When the Stranger arrived in the port of Hono¬ 
lulu and he saw preparations being made to take the 
captain ashore, he resolved to investigate things a 
little, just to satisfy himself. Watching his chance, 
while the wounded man was being carried across 
the deck to be lowered into the boat, he dashed 
forward and lifted the hat from his head. To his 
intense surprise and chagrin xne captain’s scalp was 
all there, and his hair did not look as if it had 
ever been near a fire. Knowing nothing of the 
Christian principle of returning good for evil, the 
trapper supposed that Captain Gaylord had been 
piling literal coals on his patient’s head every day. 
It took Uncle Dick a long time to explain things, 
and the backwoodsman never had as much faith in 
him after that. 

Having restored Frank to the society of his 
friends once more, we will take leave of him for the 


332 


THE SPORTSMAN’S- CLUB. 


present, promising to say more of him soon' in the 
concluding volume of this series, which will be en¬ 
titled : “ The Boy Traders ; or, The Sports¬ 
man’s Club among the Boers.” 


THE END. 


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